The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1897-04-29
MYERS WILL NOT HANG.

Governor Ellcrbe believes tho Mar
Was Unduly ConYictCd-Tho Negro
Confessed to His Captors With q
Rope Around His Neck.
Governor Ellerbe has ccmmuted tc
imprisonment for life the sentence o
Frank Myers, colored, who was con
vlcted Of arson at Georgetown, and was
sentenced to be hung on Friday, 10th
inst. The Governor respited him ter
days ago, because the day set for the
hanging was Good Friday.
The Columbia correspondent of the
News and Courier gives the following
statement Of the case:
Myers case bas attracted consider.
able attention, and there has been a
| very great deal said in favor of the
| granting OF the communication of the
sentence. There will be no protest
| against the action of Governor Ellerbe
| In this case, Us there has been general
| request for the Communication since the
facts of the case have been known
Frank Myers is very much of law.
breaker, but he has been sentenced to
death for the burning of an clubhouse
In which no one slept, a crime for
which no one has ever been hanged.
NOfCfuOf Eil0FD6 lbSU week Rru0GCQ
q respite for week on arrorrt ~ Two
execution being Fl ( & Inl Gvvu Friday,
and to-day. liter hearing argument, he
decided that under all the circum-
stances he would commute the sentence
to life imprisonment in the peniten-
tiary. He says that he has not taken
| this action because OF his desire to an
tagonize the existing law, or through
any admission that Myers would never
have been convicted If his color had
been different, but because Of the fact
that there is in his mind considerable
and overpowering doubt whether Myers
would ever have made the confession
he is alleged to have made if he had
There appeared before Governor EI-
lerbe to-day, in connection with the
case, Mr.. Wilson, solicitor for the cir
cult; the solicitors brother, whose
property was burned; Mr. Baron Grier,
who prosecuted the cases, and Mr..
| Rhem, who lost property by the fire.
1t was brought out in tho testimony
| offered to Governor Ellerbe by Mr.. :
Wilson, that a rop1 was put around
Frank Myers neck, and that it was not
until after the rope had been put
| around his neck and threats had been
| made that Myers confessed to what he
did in the hone of saving his life.
Governor Ellerbe is strongly of the
opinion that if this fact had been
brought out at the trial, while Myers
would have been convicted he would
| have been recommended to the mercy
| Of the court. The fact that such pres
sure was brought to get the confession
was not brought out at the trial, and
Governor Ellerbe and others are decid
edly of the opinion that il 1t had no.
been for tho confession, or what il
alleged to have been Il confession, there
would never have been conviction
without q recommendation to mercy.
In addition to these facts Mr.. Walter
Hazard, who has worked hard fol
Myers, sent up to-day a batch Of alfi
davits and papers that bear directly or
the case. S. w. Ellis and Charles w
Rouse, mem bers of the jury, say, under
oath, that they did not know that
| Myers would be sentenced to be hanged
| upon the verdict that was rendered,
and that they would mover have con-
sented to the verdict had they known
that it would have involved death
sentence. An affidavit is also offered
in which it is stated that one of the
| jurors gave the impression that he was
In for hanging some one because he
had lost a barn by an incendiary fire,
and it was his idea that it would be q
good plan to keep up the hanging until
his negro was reached--the one who
burned his barn.
| These allidavits, together with
others, wero sent in by Mr.. Hazard
with long letter and affidavit from
MIN, in which he shows that Frank
Myers confession was forced out OF
him, and that it :. vs. not worthy Of be-
lief, and that Myers told the straigh,
story at the time of his trial.
Indeed, an affidavit is offered that
Pedro and Lawrence Myers were at a
tar kiln at the time Of the burning, and
that there is no ground for the con-
| victiOn of these two men.
Mr. Hazard in his correspondence
makes out u forcible argument to show
why Frank Myers should not be made
to suffer the death penalty, and tho
new phase is presented that the father
and brother were brought in by the
confession OF Frank Myers, and that
the only evidence on which Lawrence
and Pedro were convicted was sim
| ilarity Of footprints and the confession
Of Frank Myers.
1t is seldom that case excites such
general interest, and it was because OF
tho unusual severity of the punish
ment that there was such general
| protest against tho hanging.