Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-03-28
Sentence Will Be Carried
Out Next Friday.
THE GOVERNORS REASON
For Declining to Interfere Is
Given in a Long Letter.
Much Excitement in
Glendive.
Special to the Inter Mountain.

Special to the Inter Mountain.
Helena. March 2S.-Joseph c. Hurst
will have to hang Friday for the murder
of Sheriff Dominick Cavanaugh of Daw-
son county in December. 1898, unless some
sort OF stay can be procured from the
courts as Governor Smith this afternoon
with the judgment of the courts.
The governor furnished the press with
copies of 12-page type written letter he
has sent to Messrs Connolly, Myers and
Haskell. Hurst's counsel. stating his rea-
son for refusing to exercise executive
clemercy. He reviews the whole qustion
and plainly indicates that he would not
grant even a reprieve for few days.
In his letter he says he has given eight
days of careful painstaking examination
to the case. He scores c. P. Connolly for
his article in the Standard on the case
saying:
Before entering into a discussion of
the facts of this case 1 desire to express
in unqualified terms my disapproval of
the methods resorted to for the purpose
of inf1aming public opinion in this case.
.'The sensational article published in
the Standard over Mr.. Connolly's sigma
ture is almost wholly without any foun-
dation whatever. If you will take out
of that statement the fact that Joseph
Hurst was tried and convicted in Daw-
son county you will remove from 1t al
most every particle of truth it contain
ed. During the trial before me 1 asked
Mr.. Connolly to give me some evidence
of the truth of the charges which he had
made in the paper. This he wholly fall
ell to do.
II cannot be forced into the belief that
Judge Loud would sentence any man to
be hanged unless he was thoroughly sat
isfied with the verdict rendered by a
jury in his court. After the motion for
new trial had been Overruled. the case
was appealed to the supreme court of the
state, where three able, Industrious and
conscientious men passed upon the rec
ord presented to them, and while it is
true that the supreme court as rule
will not interfere with the verdict of a
jury upon question of fact, yet when
ever the evidence is too slight in the es-
timatiOn of the supreme court to justify
the judgment rendered, the case is and
has been reversed on more than one Oc-
casion by our own court and sent back
fer new trial.
THE case is now submitted to me for
pardon, Communication or reprieve upon
the Same Identical facts submitted to the
jury, the trial judge and the supreme
court. Sixteen fair, impartial and un-
biased men, four of them occupying the
highest judicial positions in our state,
are satisfied with this evidence. and say
that IL was sufficient to sustain a judg-
ment and sentence of death.
''As a matter of fact the showing dis
closes this condition of affairs"
Then he reviews the evidence combat
ting several of the claims of Connolly
and others that Hurst did not have a fair
trial and continuing says in part:
Neither is there anything in the
whole record to convince any man that
the court was prejudiced; on the other
hand there is much in the record to con-
vince any man that Judge Loud was fa
vOrable at all times to the defendant
Hurst. In fact, he allowed the attorneys
for Hurst more privileges than is usually
allowed ITO defendants in any criminal
case that I have witnessed. His charge
to the jury and the whole conduct of the
trial vas as fair as it was possible. The
three lawyers who prosecuted Hurst We're
his political friends.
''Under such circumstances 1t is impOssi-
BILE to believe there was any political pre-
judice against him. Making these sensa-
tional and unwarranted charges through
the press for the purpose of influencing
either judicial or executive action in any
matter which is to come before either
branch of the state for official action is
unjustifiable and more so when made by
an attorney at law.
"SeVenty-Seven petitions with about
5000 names have been presented to me.
Forty of these petitions are from Silver
Bow county. seven from Missoula. five
from Anaconda, and only one or two
from the other points in the state. all
based upon this article that appeared in
the Standard. Without any real knowl-
edge Of the facts i'm the case. l have said
this much for the purpose, as far as
possible of doing Justice to the court.
the jury and the community in which
Mr.. Hurst was tried.
! sI am absolutely certain that while
disapprOve Of such methods. l would not
permit the same to bias or warp my judg-
.ment in any respect. The constitution
of tho state divides the bus ness of the
state into three departments--the legis-
lafi.c the judicial and the executive.
Arq,e ,ceislative deDartment declares and
pre sfrihes what the law shall be fer all
o. ar1 -,atte~s the judicial depart
neys. Is s'charsed with the duty of con-