The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-12-18
NO PARDON FOR HIM
Grace Chesley's Mother Prevents
Robert BOardman's Pardon.
HER PLEA WAS DRAMATIC
PARDoNING BOARD LISTENS
AND IS CONVERTED.
Jack Dennison, Implicated in the
saltair Burglary, Secures Glenn.
ency-Mercy Shown to David
Mackay, Who May Have Been
Innocent-Five Denials.

But for the appearance and touching
appeal of Mrs. William Chesley. the
mother of Grace Chesley, who was Sc
duced by Robert Boardman, jr., there
is good reason TO believe the board Of
pardons would yesterday have been in
clined to liberate him from the state
prison. Grace is but little over 10 years
of age, and Boardman was convicted of
the crime charged against him and
sentenced on Feb. 1, 1898, to serve
eighteen months in the penitentiary.
Several hundred citizens of Provo and
other Utah county towns petitioned the
board for pardon, claiming he had
been sufficiently punished for the of
Tense. Judge Dusenberry and County
Attorney King recommended clemency,
the latter urging that some mitigating
circumstances had arisen, and new evil
dence favorable to the defendant had
been discovered. This evidence, ac-
cording to the affidavits of Grace Fuller
and others, on,file, tended to show that
one William Bailey was the author of
Miss Chesley's ruin. 1t was also al
legged that the Fuller girl had been paid
$50 for refraining from testifying at
the trial as to the admissions of Miss
. =
to Miss Fuller that Bailey was the man
who had destroyed her.
Mrs. Chesley waited until all this
evidence had been presented and then,
arising, asked, Have I the permission
of the board TO make a statement"
This being granted, she continued:
Gentlemen of the board, 1 am the
mother of the unfortunate girl, and am
here to add an earnest protest to
Boardman being shown any leniency.
He ruined my daughter, as has been
shown in court of justice; has been
convicted and sentenced. For destroy
ing her entire life he has received a
sentence of eighteen months and now,
before the term has scarcely half ex-
pired, a plea for mercy is made, sup
plemented by statement that the ends
Of justice have been satisfied, made by
the county attorney. He can never
pay the penalty for the wrong he has
done. My daughter, gentlemen, was
scarcely 10 years of age when this man
wronged her, and placed upon her the
brand of shame. which will go with her
until the end of her life. He will come
out of prison and be received among
men as one who has done no real
wrong, While she will shrink from the
finger of scorn through ell the years
which are to come. While there will be
those who will take him by the hand
and make him welcome. those same
people viii avoid my poor little girl,
because he seduced her and blighted
her life. No act of his can restore to
her her honor; nothing he can do will
give her back her good name; through
/ life she will be compelled to listen to
] the wl4isperings of scandal and the
! tongues of the malicious. For her there
! is no board of pardonS; no clemency;
| the full measure of her punishment
must be melted out, and the years of
J her term of misery are measured only
by the hours which are marked on the
/ dial of time until the moment comes
/ when she shall pass from earth to an
/ other land. Shall the author of this
infamy, the seducer of an innocent girl.
be turned loose before he has suffered
/ the punishment the law provides? 1
( trust not. l hope he will be compelled
! to endure the full measure in order
I that, when released, he will retain the
: recollection of the crime he has COM
mitted, and be thus prevented from in
vading the sanctity of other homes and
accomplishing the destruction of other
I innOcents.'
Mrs. Chesley spoke as though she
had received inspiration. On arising,
she intended making only a simple
( protest, fearing that language would
/ fail her; but words failed her not The
mothers plea at once became eloquent,
and her every manner was intensely
dramatic. Governor Wells, Chief JUS
tice Zane, Judge Miner, Attorney Cen
eral Bishop and all who We're in the
audience were visibly affected. The
poor girl, bowed down with the weight
of woe, was there, too. The scene was
heartrending, and nothing approaching
it has ever before been witnessed at
the pardon boards meetings. The JUS
tice of the mothers plea found impress
sion on the board and Boardman's pc
tition Tor clemency was denied