Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-06-20
LOCAL MURDERERS
Recommendations of the Attorney
General.
NO CLEMENCY FOR SMELL And VALE
Favofs the Execution of the
Courts Sentence.
WOULD SAVE LANDON

WOULD SAVE LANDON
! Attorney General Griggs today passed
upon the applications of three local muir
| derers for Communication of death sentence
| to life Imprisonment The recommendations
| of the Attorney General have heen for
| warded to the White House and are now
before the President. There is little doubt
| o. any action by the Chief Executive other
| than recommended by Attorney General
| Griggs. If this is the Arthur Landon
( will be saved from the gallows. while Ben
| jamin H. Smell and Nelson Vale will be
| hanged unless other legal methods fail.
| Tie Attorney General sees no reason TO in
| terfere with the sentences of Smell and Vale,
| but recommends that Landon's sentence be
| commuted TO twenty years in prison.
| OF the various cases the Attorney Cen
| eral makes the following recommends tions:
| Opposes CIemency for Smell.
| This petitioner says Attorney General
| Griggs. referring to SHELLS case, was con-
v,cted of murder in the District of Co
| lGmbia. and is row under sentence of death.
His victim was girl of between thirteen
| and fourteen years of age. The killing was
! brutal and premeditatCd, and the facts con-
| II, cted with ii not denied. The petit
| TONER. mostly through friends or former
/ acuuaiutanccs now residing in Georgia, asks
| that his sentence be commutcd to life I'M
prsonment upon the ground that he was
| not responsible for his act. This very ques-
| ton was the one single issue presented to
| the jury. and evidence on both sides of
| that issue was adduced, commented on by
| counsel and the court and the jury. under
| instructions of the court, found that the
prisoner was sane and responsible, ana
| therefore gully of premeditated murder
80 tbfrntf Tod n 1-f
| the President in holding that the verdict
| of the jury thus arrived at on the single
issue presented to it was erroneous. Either
| the prisoner sane and therefore re-
sponsible, or he was insane and therefore
irresponsible. If he was irresponsible be-
| fore the law he should not be punished at
all: If he was fully responsible, as the jury
| found. there is no reason why any clemency
| should be extended to him. l recommend
| that the Judgment of the court be allowed
to stand.
Wales Crime Was Deliberate.
In the case of Nelson Vale the Attorney
General recommends:
1.-The petitioner was convicted in the
Supreme Court of the District of Columbia
of murder and is under sentence to be
hanged July g. 1900. The petition asks that
the sentence be committed to life imprison-
ment.
II have carefully read and considered
the transcript of the testimony given on the
trial, from which it appears that the homi-
eide deliberate and premed1tated Inc
deceased a man who had aroused the
jealousy of the prisoner by reason OF at
tentionS, or supposed attentions, to Wo-
man with whom the prisoner had been liv-
ing in Illicit relations. On d Friday In jan
uary Vale saw the deceased standing at
the door of his house in conversation with
the woman in question and ordered him
away. The deceased left and never again
returned. The next day Vale purchased
pistol and on the Sunday following went
to the house where Jackson was and en-
deRvored to provoke him into quarrel, at
that time having the pistol with him in his
pocket Failing to draw the deceased into
the desired quarrel Vale withdrew to the
front of the house in which jackson lived,
and upon Jackson appearing subsequently
renewed his efforts TO provoke quarrel,
| this time successfully, to the extent that
| the deceased picked up and threw two mis-
siles. brick and stone. at Vale Some
| of the witnesses testify that at the time the
deceased threw these missiles Vale was
advancing toward him with his hand in his
| hip pocket where his pistol was. AT any
| rate. as the deceased threw the second mis-
| sile. Vale drew his pistol and shot him
dead. Prior to this time Vale had stated in
the presence of numerous witnesses that he
intended to kill the deceased, and after the
murder he stated to several different wit
| nesses that he had killed him on account
| of the woman, and made no allegation that
| his act was in self-defense.s -'..'Sts
Some affidavits presented for the
purpose impeachng several of the wit
nesSes of the government, which affidavitS
We're used upon motion for a new trial
before the supreme Court but unsuccess-
| fully. The Joints as to which the evidence
| of the governments witnesses is thus at
tempted 20 be impeached are purely collat-
eral. ard d. not relate to the circumstances
connected with the murder. If the teSti-
mony of eacn of these witnesses was ex-
GUIDED, there would still remain enough
| unimpeachesi and unimpeachable evidence
on the part of the government to have re-
qured from the jury the verdict which was
rendered.
| In view of the deliberate preparation of
| the prisoner, of his murderous purpose
previously expressed in the rearing of diff
ferent persons, of his efforts to lure the de-
ceased into quarrel or fight which would
give him occasion for the use of the deadly
weapon which he had purchased for the
sole purpose of killing the deceased.
other conclusion can be reached than that
| this is a case Of murder of the first degree
willful. deliberate. premeditated and utterly
unjus tifiable, and with no cause or provo
cation whatever. / find no reason to rec
ommend that the sentence of the court be
interfered with
Lnndon VIII He Saved.
The following recommendation is made in
the case of Arthur Landon:
1.-THE petitioner, a colored boy nineteen
years of age, was convicted of murder in
the District of Columbia, and is under sem
tence of death. From the evidence pro-
duced at the trial. 1t appears that the af-
fray in which the homicide was committed
was a sudden one, taking place the pub
lie street in the city of Washington on the
evening of December H. 1899. The man
killed was colored also. but older and much
larger and stronger than the prisoner. The
deceased carried at the time he came up
with the prisoner a large oak stick, about
three feet in length and razor was found
upon his person after his death. 1t does
not appear that there ever any quar-
rel or ill-feeling between the parties. The
| evidence on the part of the government
goes to show that the deceased offered no
p.ovocation for the assault which the pris-
| oner made upon him. but there IS sufficient
evidence in the case to make it entirely
probable that the accused supposed, but
| perhaps without reasonable grounds for