Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-03-21

for flight and had written to her broth
er that she would go to him.
Mrs. Place was tried before Judge
Hurd. in Brooklyn, last summer and
was found guilty of murder in the first
degree. The case was carried to the
Court of Appeals, but the conviction
was affirmed and she was sentenced
to death. Governor Roosevelt was then
petitioned TO exercise clemency, it be-
ing alleged that Mrs. Place was insane
at the time the crime was committed,
and he appointed Drs. Danna and Polk
of New York City to report to him on
this point. They informed the Cover
nor that
THE WOMAN WAS SANE
when she killed her stepdaughter and
was sane now. This destroyed her last
hope of life, and on March Is, Governor
Roosevelt announced his refusal to in
terfere accompanying it with the fol-
lowing memorandum:
mo more painful case can come be-
fore Governor than an 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 reasona-
BILE doubt of the guilt, if there were
any basis whatsoever for interference
with the course of justice in his case,
l should so interfere. But there is no
ground for interference. The accused
was condemned as guilty of murder
in the first degree after full and fair
trial, although, as all men know, a
jury in such case is always reluctant
to give a verdict against a 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 a dissenting
voice, though this court always scru-
tiniZes with the most jealous care such
case, desiring that the benefit of
every doubt shall be given to the ac-
cused. l wrote to- the District Attor-
ney and to the Judge who tried the
case to learn whether they thought
| there was any ground for executive
clemency. 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 its object;
that both crimes were premeditated and
deliberate there can be no doubt: in
my opinion the verdict was eminently
| just; l think the application
ENTIRELY WITHOUT MERIT,
| nd Il Of fnr nj or-
ing with the sentence.
Il went carefully over the evidence
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 attacked
| him and endeayored to kill him with
| an axe.
Her attorneys and her pastor APP
pealed to me for clemency. They raised
no question as to her guilt, but claimed
| that she was insane at the time the
deed was committed, and was now in
sane; the clergyman stated that she
was undoubtedly sane at present, but
| that he believed her to be insane when
the deed was committed, although he
did not then come personally in con-
tact with her.
Il accordingly appointed two doctors
of the highest standing, upon whose
professional capacity, common sense,
and deep consciousness l could i'm
plicitly rely, and directed them to eX-
anime the accused, to decide whether
she was or had been insane. They re-
ported to me that she was not insane;
that she was sane at the time of the
| murder and before and since.
There is no question of the woman S
guilt and no question of her sanity.
All that remains is the question as to
whether | should be justified in inter-
| fering to save a murderesS on the
ground of her sex, when no justifica-
| ton would exist to interfere on behalf
of murderer The only case of capt.
tai punishment which has occurred
since the beginning of my term was
for wife murder and l refused to con-
slider the appeals then made to me on
behalf of the man who had killed his
wife after | became convinced that he
had really done the deed, and was
sane In that case a woman was killed
by man; in this case a woman was
killed by another woman. The law
| makes
NO DISTINCTION OF SEX
in such crime.
This murder was one of peculiar de-
liberation and atrocity. To Interfere
with the course of the law in this case
could be justified only on the ground
that never hereafter, under any circum-
stances should capital punishment be
inflicted upon any murderess, even
though that victims torture preceded
her death.
There is but one course open to me.
| decline to interfere with the course OF
the law"
Several weeks before his official de-
cision was given out, Governor Roose-
welt was quoted as follows:
My sympathies in criminal cases
are for the wronged and not for the
| wrongdOer. The fact that the criminal
is woman makes no difference to me.
l am always ready to try to see that
justice is done In ordinary cases, if a
woman is found precisely as blame
worthy as a man, | wC-lld punish the
woman exactly as much as the man.
l have no sympathy with mawkish
sentimentality"
After the murder was committed
Place showed no interest in his wife's
fate. He testified at the trial, but has
taken no part in the effort to save her