The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-03-16
SHE WILL BE ELECTROCUTED
GOVERNOR ROOSEVELT REFUSES TO
 INTERFERE IN PLACE CASE.
In Ills Memoranda of Decision the Governor Says That the Crimc Was Most Atrocious and That the Prisoner Had u Fair Trial and Should Suffer the Penalty Imposed for the Crime.
Imposed for the Crime.


 Had n Fair Trial and should Suffer tn, ] Penalty Imposed for the Crime. ! Albany, March Ex-Governor Roose
 welt has refused to commute the sen
 tence of Mrs. Martha Place, the
 Brooklyn murderess. and she will be
 electrocuted some day this week at
 Sing Sing prison.
 When the governor made known his
 decision he issued the following memo
 randum:
 This is an application made in be-
 half of Martha Place, now in contine-
 ment in Sing Sing, under sentence of
 death for the crime of murder in the
 first degree, committed in the county
 of Kings on the 7th day of February, 1898.
 'The case was tried in the county court of Kings county, and Judgment
 thereon rendered on the Sth day of July, 1898, and the defendant was sen- tenced to the punishment of death in
 the manner and place prescribed by law. From this judgment the defen- dant appealed to the court of appeals and the unanimous decision of that court, Judge Martin writing the opin- ion, was that the judgment should be affirmed.
 "No more painful case can come be- fore a governor than all appeal to ar rest the course of justice in order to save woman from capital punishment when that woman's guilt has been clearly established and when there are no circumstances whatever to mitigate the crime. If there were any reason able doubt of the guilt if there were any basis whatsoever for interference with the course of justice in this case, I should so interfere. But there is no ground for interference. The accused was condemned as guilty of murder in the first degree after a full and fair trial, although as all men know, jury in such case is always reluctant to give a verdict against woman if any justification whatsoever exists for withholding it. This verdict was then reviewed at great length by the court of appeals and was affirmed without dissenting voice. though this court al- ways scrutinizes with the most jealous care such case desiring that the ben eft of every doubt shall be given to the accused. I wrote 10 the district attor- ney and to the judge who tried the case to learn whether they thought there was any ground for executive cIemency. They both answered that there was none whatever, and that the case was one of peculiar outrage, the letter of the judge running as follows:
 "'The record before you will show a crime of shocking atrocity, followed by another, the attack on William Place, having murder for it's object; that both crimes were premeditated and deliber- ate there can be no doubt; in my opin- ion the verdict was entirely just. I think the application entirely without merit and I know of no ground for in- terfering with the sentence
 "I went over the evidence fully, which showed that the accused had first blinded her step- daughter with acid and then strangled her. and after waiting in the house all day, when her husband returned at dark, had attack d him and endeavored to kill him with an ax.
 "IIer attorneys and her pastor appeal sd to me for clemency. They raised no question as to her guilt, but claimed hat she was insane; the attorneys as- serted that she was insane at the time he murder was committed, and was low insane. The clergyman stated that she was undoubtedly sane at present, put that he believed her to be insane when the crime was committed, al- hough he did not then come personally n contact with her.
 1T accordingly appointed two doctors ! if the highest standing upon whose pro- f essional capacity, common sense and leep conscientiousneSs l could rely and { lirected them to examine the accused o determine whether or not she was or lad been insane. They reported to me hat she was not insane; that she was | ane at the time of the murder and be- ore and since.
 "There is thus no question of the wo- aans guilt and no question of her san- ty All that remains io the question as - 0 whether I should be justified in in- t to save murderess on the round of her sex when no justification # tould exist to interfere on behalf of a 1urderer. The only case of capital which has occurred since he beginning of my term was for wife lurder, and I refused to consider the pplications then made to me on behalf f the man who had killed his wife af- ar I became convinced that he had 1 aally done the deed and was sane. In { nat case woman was killed by man; 1 this case a woman was killed by an- ther woman. The law makes no dis notion of sex in such a crime. This murder was one of peculiar de- beration and atrocity. To interfere ith the course of the law in this case f 1uld not be justfed only on the ground { lat never hereafter, under any circum- ances, should capital punishment be l lficted upon any murderess, even I tough the victim was herself a woman, nd even though that victims torture 2 receded her death. T '"There is but one course open to me. decline to interfere with the course of le law
 Prairie Out of Commission.
 Washington, March 15.--The Prairie as put out of commission at League f