Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-05-01
KEMMLER RESPITED.
Habeas Corpus Obtained in the
United States Circuit Court.
ROGER N. SHERMAN SECURES IT.
Newspaper Men Make a Bee Line For the
Telegraph and Kemmler Says "O!"
Text of the Peculiar Doc
uments.

AUBURN, n. Y, April 3O.-Judge Wal
lace, of the United States Circuit Court,
has granted writ of habeas corpus, re-
| turnable June IL, in the case of Kemm-
| Ter, the man condemned to die by elec-
tricity this week. The ground for the
writ is that the act under which the ex.
ecution was to take place is in violation
of the Constitution. The writ is as fol-
! lows:
! The President of the United States to
Charles F. DurstOn, Warden and Agent OF
| Auburn Prison, greeting:
| The people of the United States, whom God
defend, do command you that you have the
body of William Kemmler, by you impris-
| oned and detained, as it is said, together with
| the time and cause Of such Imprisonment
| and detention, by whatsoever name the said
William Kemmler is called or charged,
| before the Circuit Court of the United
States, for the Northern district of New
| York, to be held at Canandaigua on the third
| Tuesday of June at ten O'Clock in the morn
| ing. Witness the
HON. MELVILLE W. FULLER,
Chief Justice of the Tn tied States.
Fail not at your peril and have you then
| there this writ.
On the back of the writ is this indorse-
ment:
The within writ is granted this 29th daY Of
| April, 1880. WILLIAM j. WALLACE,
! Judge United states Circuit Court.
1t was 2:15 when Warden Durston
stepped from his office into the prison
corridor and formally announced that
the writ had been served upon him.
The newspaper men jumped down the
prison steps and ran up State street to
the telegraph Office three blocks away.
When Mr.. Durston, laying his hand
on Kemmlers shoulder, explained to
him that writ of habeas corpus had
been served upon him and that he had a
new lawyer who was going to try his
case over again, the prisoner looked
with look that showed he did not fully
understand the warden's language.
Then Mr.. Durston said: ''It means
that your execution is not coming off
now and that you will have two months
and perhaps longer to live"
''O," said Kemmler just as if the real
facts were beginning to dawn upon him,
"that makes me feel much easier"
The warden stood there for mo-
ment; Kemmler walked to his chair and
and he said nothing to indicate great
astonishment or delight Mr.. DurstOn
turned, locked the corr dor door and
came away.
HOW OBTAINED.
New YORK, April 30.-The writ of
habeas corpus granted by Judge Wallace
in the case of Kemmler. who was to have
been executed by electricity at Auburn,
was given on the application of ex-
United States District Attorney Roger
| NJ. Sherman, of this city. Mr.. Sherman
saw the Judge in his private rooms late
Monday afternoon and obtained from
him the papers which did not become
writ until signed by Clerk Doolittle, Of
the Northern District Circuit Court at
Utica. Judge Wallace, sitting in New
York, which is the southern district, did
not have the power to make the stay
until it had properly passed through the
hands of the Northern District Court in
which Kemmler was. Consequently Mr..
Sherman, whose connection with the
case does not seem plain, fastened at
once to Mr. Doolittle ard thence to Au-
burn, where the order was first made
public.
Judge Wallace had closed his court
before the news reached the city and
could not be interviewed on the subject.
Mr.. Sherman had not returned to his
Office nor had he been there all day.
The future of the case will be one of
long protracted litigation. Mr.. Sherman
will not say who retained him.
THE PETITION.
UTICA, N. Y, April 3O.-The docu-
ments in the Kemmler habeas corpus
proceedings were received by Clerk
Doolittle of the United States Circuit
Court, at 1890 last evening. They came
from Kemmler's attorney, Roger NJ.
Sherman, and were mailed at Syracuse
A letter accompanied the papers, in
which Clerk Doolittle was informed that
Mr.. Sherman had arranged to dispense
with formal service and requesting him
to mail the writ to Warden Durston,
saying that would be sufficient.
The petition upon which the writ was
granted is as follows:
To the Judge of the Circuit Court of the
United Sta, es for the Northern District of
| New York:
fully shows:
First-That he is a citizen of the United
States and is deprived Of his liberty by
Charles 4. DurstOn, agent and warden of
Auburn prison, at Auburn, in the said North
ern district of New York, who threatens and
is about to put him, said kemmler, to death
by causing to pass through the body of said
Kemmler a current of electricity of sufficient
intensity in the opinion of said Durston to
cause death and that the said Kemmler is
there held in custody and deprived of his
liberty against his will and in violation of
the Constitution of the United States.
Second-The facts concerning the deten-
tion of him, said Kemmler, and the claim or
authority by virtue of which he is so de-
tanned, are as follows: He was convicted in
the court of oyer and terminer of the county
of Erie, in the state of New York, of the
crime of murder in the first degree, COM
mitted March 29, 1888, and a warrant has
been issued upon the Judgment of said con-
viction to said Durston appointing the week
| within which sentence must be executed,
commanding said Durston to do execution
upon some day within the said week by
causing to pass through the body of him, the
said William Kemmler, a current of elec-
tricity of sufficient intensity to cause death,
and that the application of such current OF
electricity to be continued until he, the said
William Kemmler, be dead. Said week ex-
pires May 8, 1870
Third-The only authority Of law for said
sentence is a statute of the State of New
York, chapter 4S9 of the laws of 1883, entitled /:
San act to amend sections l91, 492, sos, 504
sos, sos, 507, SIS, SOC of the code of criminal
procedure, in relation to the infliction of
the death penalty and to provide means for
the in1iiction of such penalty
Fourth-Said statute is in conflict with the
( Constitution of the Unitad Suites, in that the
punishment imposed thereby is cruel and
unusual, and in that thereby the said State
abridses the immunities of him, the said
william Kemmler. to be exempt from cruel