The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-07-04
STATE SUPREME COURT
A New Trial for Joseph Allen
Was Denied.
is CONVICTED OF MURDER
The Governor Will Be Asked to Com
mute the Sentence to Life I'M
prisonment-City OF Butte
VS.. Call Dismissed.
sneclal pIspatch to the Standard.

Special Dispatch to the Standard
Helena, July S.-This was a busy day
with the supreme court. Three appeals
were decided, two dismissed and two
cases argued. The court refused a new
trial to Joseph Allen. convicted of muir
der in the first degree in this county
and sentenced to hang.
Allen is a young half breed, who shot
and killed his partner. man by the
name of ]. S. Reynolds, in the northern
part of Lewis and Clarke county, July
A. 1898. Reynolds was sheep shearer
and Allen was his partner. They had
been working for different sheep men in
the county and travelled around with
a camping outfit. The evening of the
tragedy they camped not far from
Mitchelrs station on the Montana Cen
trail. A party who passed near their
camp noticed that they were engaged
in a heated conversation. He thought
nothing of it until next morning, when
he learned that Reynolds dead body
had been found, wrapped in a blanket
A bullet hole in the head showed how
he had met his death. Allen was miss
ing. He was seen travelling west that
day and later was seen in Deer Lodge
county ana again IN ldanO.
A reward was offered for his cap
ture and he was finally apprehended
in Oregon, where he was working on
a ranch. He was brought back, tried
and convicted of murder in the first de-
gree. Judge Smith sentenced him to
hand. but the execution was
postponed pending the decision of
his appeal to the supreme court. The
action of the court to-day removed his
last hope unless the governor can be
induced to commute the punishment to
life Imprisonment. An effort will proc
ably be made to that end, the eXecu-
tive being asked to grant clemency be-
cause of his being a young man, and
the further fact that being of Indian
blood he is hardly expected to grasp the
awfulness of his crime.
The question of the circumstantial
character of the evidence will also be
raised. Allen claimed self-defense. He
set up that Reynolds, who was larger
man. had threatened him during a dis
pute over the disposition of a pay
check in which both claimed interest.
He said Reynolds was about to assault
him and he fired, killing him. Fright
ened at what he had done, he wrapped
the body in a blanket and left the
country. The supreme court in an
opinion by Justice Pigott finds that the
evidence was ample to support the YER
dict. In regard to Aliens claim of self
defense, the court said:
THE defendant, while admitting the
killing, claimed that it was done in
self-defense; but the evidence tends
strongly to show that he killed the de-
cendent while the latter was asleep,
fer the purpose of gaining possession
of a check payable to the order of the
decedent and which the defendant af-
forwards Endorsed, and of certain per-
sonal property on the body of the de-
cedent. The jury might it is true.
upon the testimony have found the de-
PENDANT guilty of murder in the second
degree, or of manslaughter, or might
have acquitted him, for there was evil
dence favoring homicide in self-defense
murder in the second degree, and
manslaughter, respectively, might have
been deduced by the triers of the facts,
but the jury were evidently satisfied
that the only legitimate inference was
that the defendant had committed a
deliberate murder. We cannot declare
that the evidence presented was of such
character and effect that it might have
left in the minds of the jurors a reason
able doubt of the defendants guilt. 1t
is not the province of this court to
usurp the office of the jury or the func-
ton of the trial court"
The court declines to go into the
question of the possibility of error in
instructions, because defendants brief
rallied to comply with the rules OF the
court providing that when an error is
alleged the specification shall be set
forth in full Another point raised by
Aliens counsel was that error was
committed in permitting the exhibits
in the case, the skull of the murdered
man, his hat spotted with blood, and
worn at or just prior to the killing
and bloodstained sack found near the
scene of the crime to be sent to the
jury for inspection and examination out
of the court ROOM This action, it was