The San Francisco call., 1897-06-11

The meaning of this telegram is that it
will not be many days now until the At
torney-GeneraI petitions the Supreme
Court for q writ commanding " arden
Hale to hang Durrant on July 9. This
petition will set forth brief history of
the case to date, together with the recital
that the Warden has repeatedly stated
that he will not comply with the sentence,
fearing the conseoue noes pending an an
peal to the Supreme Court of the United
States. This writ will therefore ask The
Supreme Court to command the execu-
ton. 1t will involve an Interpretation of
the Federal law by the Supreme Court and
the Warden may hang Durrant pending
the final appeal, if the State court should
so command.
Attorney George K. French, who was
associated with the late General Ben njamin
F. Butler in the practice of the law up to
the time of General Buffers death, and
who represented the State of New York in
a professional capacity IN the prosecution
of the Jugiro, Kemmler, Wood, Smiler
and Slocum cases, commonly known as
the ''electrocution cases." before the
United States Supreme Court, last night
expressed himself as to the probable out
come of the Durrant and Worden cases as
follows:
There is so much apparent uncertainty
and contrariety of opinion in respect to
the status of Dur-ant and Worden, and the
application of the Federal laws to the
respective cases. that plain, concise and
careful discussion of the questions in
volved cannot fail 10 afford enlightenment.
The case of Jugiro GAO Q. S., 291) particu-
larl hv ha zff
representing these two defendants, and
copious extracts from the opinion of the
court in that case have appeared in the
newspapers.
None of the contentious in either the
Durrant or Worden case as urged by de-
fendants' attorneys can be said to be even
touched upon in the Jugiro case, and
they surely cannot rely upon this
seriously. Roger NJ. Sherman appeared
in behalf of the petitioner in the Jugiro
case, and in his second application for a
writ of habeas corpus he embodied ali the
essential points of his first application.
AS these questions had been already de-
cided by the Supreme Court, November
"a, 1890, on the first appeal from the
Judgment of the Circuit Court of the
United States for the Southern District of
NcW 4O4A ing Oil opDllCdtlOu IOT g
writ of habeas corpus, the Supreme Court
administered a severe rebuke 10 Mr..
Sherman and peremptorily affirmed the
judgment of the lower court. This was, in
effect, an admonition that frivolous ap.
peals would meet with scant ceremony.
The New York State Bar Association, not
content with this, Immediately took steps
looking 10 the disbarment of Mr.. Sher.
man, although he was certainly acting
within his strict legal rig hts. He took the
hints. and Jugiro was electrocuted on the
I'd of July, 1891, two months after the
Supreme Court had disposed of the case.
so in the Wood case GAO U. S., 1851.
r. j. Haire, who represented Wood, con-
victed of murder in the same court, pur-
sued the Identical course adopted by
Sherman and met the same fate. His
client was equally unfortunate, though
Haire threatened within twelve hours oi
the time fixed by the Warden (this officer
being vested by law with that power) for
the execution to make another attempt
to prolong his clients life He an
nounced later as his excuse for not carly
ing out'his threat that he had been un-
able to find Judge to whom he might
present his application, but 1t is quite
possible that the i'll result of Sherm an s
attempt to prostitute the law in his
fidelity to his clients interests had acted
as deterrent.
while bar associations are not always