Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1891-04-25
RUSSELL'S PARDON.
Full Text of the Statement made to the
Governor by
Plattor.
Plattor says that it Was Clear Case
of Accidental
Shooting"
List Of the signers to the Petition for
William Russells
Pardon.

The pardon of VIM. Russell, murderer
of Daniel Canty, at Pennington, caused
considerable feeling in Whitman county,
and the feeling was especially strong
against Prosecuting Attorney Plattor,
who, it was believed, had signed the Pc
tition for the pardoning of Russell.
He did not sign the petition, but he
did what would have more weight than
the mere fact of his signature; he wrote
out a long statement" to the governor
which is here given III full:
STATEMENT OF PROSECUTING ATTORNEY
PLATToR IN THE RUSSELL PARDON CASE.
[ prosecuted the case, and there are
many extenuating circumstances con-
nected with it, for corroboration of
which, [ refer you to Voorhees, and
Crowley.
The boy was a youth of quite good
character previous to this, not given to
drinking, of the age of % years; he had
fast horse, and it seemed to be his
ambition to have this horse take front
place in the race course. He took him
over to Dayton and there fell in with a
fellow who bad lost his hands by some
accident, but who was able by some kind
OF cOntrlvance to take care of horses.
With this fellow he shipped the horse to
Whitman county, and they came down
to Riparia on freight train; of course
1t took them a long time, being on
slow freight train, over to Salter's
junction. They reached Salter's juno
tion at o'clock IN the morning. 1t
was, I think, in October, or perhaps
later, and they stayed there for the
night; then they came up to Farming
ton, and there proceeded to imbibe
more. That night in Pennington there
had been dance, and a crowd of young
men came into the saloon in the morn
ing and noticed these two fellows
Russell and the fellow without hands
drinking heavily The fellow without
hands became so drunk that he fell on
the floor. The crowd laughed Russell
picked his companion up and stood him
against the counter, saying: ''you stand
there and [ will fix these = -
-" He then asked fellow who was
sitting on the counter, and, holding up
his revolver at the same time: "Ddi
you laugh at that cripple?" The fellow
thinking he was joking, pointed with his
thumb over his shoulder, saying: mo,
it was that fellow" Russell then said
to the other fellow: was 1t you?" At
the same time, his revolver, which was
self-cOcklng one, went off and shot the
fellow. None of the witnesses who saw
the affair could say that he pulled the
! trigger. 1t was a clear case of acci-
dental shooting.
Another circumstance connected with
this mat er is this: At about this time
witness in a trial had been shot at the
court house door, (see case of Blanton
in the superior court), and the public
were SO excited that they demanded the
conviction of some one, as the murderer
the case of Blanton had gotten an
iappeal on some technical error; there
fore, public opinion positively demanded
that some one should be convicted, and
it was simply impossible to get fair
trial So biased was the case, that the
fellow would have been convicted on the
evidence of the defence alone. The case
was tried before Judge Ruby, who,
though good man, and one who wanted
to do right, yet was not fitted for this
position. He having been judge of the
probate court, and having been taken
from that court and placed on the bench
of the superior court, he had never tried
a case in his life, and he was called upon
to try a murder case for the first one.
The counsel at times were compelled to
agree on points themselves, as Judge
Ruby was not able to render decisions
for them. 1t was attempted to get a
change of venue for the bov to Spokane
county, but this motion was lost, and I
was compelled, of course, to fight it,
being the prosecuting attorney. There
was a clamor for conviction, and the
result was that Russell was sent to the
penitentiary for twenty years What
should have been done, I believe, would
have been to have convicted him of man
slaughter and sentenced him to a year
and a half or two years in the peniten-
tiary. The condition he was in would
be no excuse for him, but it swould
mitigate the crime committed. I want
you to hear the statement of Crowley
and Voorhees,:
Question-What is your opinion, Mr..
Plattor, as the prosecuting attorney
should this boy be pardoned or not?
Answer-Eere is the situation
There are many mitigating circumstan-
ces. Here is a young man, who has
heretofore borne good charcter. Here
is an old man who has lived in the state
forty five years, who says his only am
bition, and all that he has to live for, il
to get his boy out of prison. This
thought has so worn on his mind that
he is almost crazy. He lives in sight
of the penitentiary, and the poor mother
looks over into the penitentiary and sees
her boy All have to say is this-if
could, by stroke of my pen, set this
boy free, and bring happiness to this
| poor father and mother, would do it
The suffering of this boy cannot bring
to life the other one. The sisters of the