The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1894-09-18
PARDONS AND COMPUTATIONS,

Governor Tillman Sets Two Convicts
Free ana COmmutcS the Sentence
OF Another.
For the past five years, William Car
penter has been known to the world
as the :. famous Edgefield desperado."
His crime, escape and capture arc
FAMILIAR to the public, and it was ex-
pected that he would hang on last Fri
day, but the death sentence has been
commuted by Governor Tillman to
lie Imprisonment in the penitentiary.
There has not been more noted
case in the criminal history of South
Carolina in years than that of Carpcn-
ter and Murrell. 1t was in 1889 that
Preston 4once was shot down in tho
road, his body being filed with bull
lets. Carpenter and Murrell were ar
rested for the crime and in November,
1851, were convicted of the murder and
sentenced to be hanged. They manug-
ed to escape from the Edgetield iaii.
The public is familiar with the chase
after them. They hid in swamps for
days at time and eluded arrest for a
good while. Finallya posse captured
Murrell, but Carpenter got away.
Nothing more was neard of him until
last fall when he was arrested in Gcor-
gla for the crime of murder in that
State. Governor Tillman made u re-
QUESTION for him, and after u lot OF
correspondence between the two Gov
crnors, Carpenter was surrendered to
the authorities of this State and
brough back here. He was again SEN
fenced to be hanged and the final date
set for the execution was the l4th of
this month.
After Carpenter escaped Murrclls
attorneys petitioned Governor Rich
ardson for the Communication of the SEN
tence OF the boy and the commuta tion
was granted. One of those who signed
the petition against Murrell's pardon
was Governor Tillman, who was then
aprlvate cltizen. 1t is not known now
why Governor Richardson commuted
the sentence of Murrell, but it is sup
posed to have been for the same rea-
sons that Governor Tillman spared the
! lie OF Carpenter--that the Jury was
not in favor of hanging the two hoys
: and, through misunderstanding of a
statement of Judge Norton, recomend-
ed them to mercy, thinking the re-
! c0mmendation would save their lives.
| Murrcll and Carpenter were equally
guilty. The chief ground for the
communication of Carpenters sentence
! with Governor Ti.lman was this re-
commendation of the jury and the re-
communication of Judge Norton who
! tried the case.
! Ihere was an enormous batch Of pa
pers connected with the petition for
communication. These papers included
apetition against clemency, signed by
hundreds of people, together with u
petition in favor OF clemency also
signed by hundreds.
j. Luther Trammcll, of Greeenvillc,
has been pardoned by the Governor
| al II
son, a waiter in Legon's restaurant in
Greenville. He was tried in Febru-
ary, 1893, the jury failing to agree.
He was tried again in July of the same
year and convicted of manslaughter
In February of this year the Supreme
Court refused him new trial, and he
voluntarily surrendered to the peni-
tentiary authorities to serve out the
sentence OF four years which had been
imposed on him. The petition for
Trammell's pardon was signed by nine
fused to sign it. Judge Norton did
not make any recommendation.
Pleasant Miller, colored, of Abbe-
vile County was convicted of arson
and sentenced to life Imprisonment,
and is now pardoned. The chief ground
Tor Miller's pardon was an affidavit,
duly signed by f.. w. Knox, stating
That he was present at the trial of Mil
Ter and that the conviction was based
entirely upon circumstantial evidences;
that at the trial u measure was intro
duced by one Sam Adams, u witness
for the State. purporting to be IL meas
ure of the defendants track that the
measure was afterwards compared
with Pleasant Millers tracks and that
the measure did not fit, but was very
much longer that the said Sam Adams
thereupon cut Off about two inches of
the said measure so as to make it cor
respond to what was known to be Pleas
ant Mtller's track that the measure
thus tampered was produced at the
trial and sworn to be the measure of
the tracks seen around the burned
building. Furthermore that the prose-
cutor tried to get him (Knock) to testi-
fy that they were Pleasant Miller's
tracks, but that he refused to do so
that neither the defendant nor his at
torney knew these facts at the trial
and that he. knox was not called
upon to testify for the defendant.
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