Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1900-03-29
HURST MUST HANG.
Governor Smith Of Montana Declines to
Interfere in the Case Against
Joe Hurst.
Condemned Man Must Hang at Glen
dive Tomorrow for Murder Of
Sheriff cavanaugh.
Desperate Efforts that Have Been Made
for a Communication Of the Sen
tence Of Death.

Joe Hurst, who was convicted at
sGlendive of the murder of Sheriff Dom
mick Cavanaugh, must hang tomor-s
row for the crime. His last hope, that
of action in his favor by the governor,
has gone, as Governor Smith has de-
5clined to interfere. There is a great
deal of local interest in the Hurst a
for the reason that the condemned
man was a former resident Of this city,
and an active member atone time of
the tournament team from this city to
the firemen's annual meet. As Helena
dispatch says of the case:
Governor Smith announced today
that he would not interfere in behalf
LOT Joseph %. Hurst, sentenced to hang
at Glendive for the murder of Sheriff
ECavanaugh in December, 1898. The
governor made his decision public in
a long letter to the attorneys who have
been striving to ecu executive elem
ency. He reviews the case, comments
upon leading features of the evidence,
especially that of Gilmore, the only
witness, who directly connected Hurst
with the murder, and concludes that
the showing made at the hearing
granted those seeking to secure a com
mutton of sentence to life imprison-
ment, does not warrant executive ac-
ton.
He says, in effect, that for him to
interfere after the district and SUI
preme courts have passed upon the
case and adjudged Hurst guilty, would
indeed tend to judicial anarchy. AS
has been stated the case of Hurst is
the most memorable in ontana's his
tory. No previous appeals to the
governor to exercise executive Glenn
ency attracted much widespread at
tention and brought to the governors
office SO many petitions. There are
seventy petitions from Montana peo-
pie, containing in all over 5000 names.
There was q long petition from Otter
Tail county sMinn., where Hurst once
lived, signed by District Judge Baxter
and many other leading citizens, beg
ging the governor, on account of
Hurst's good reputation when he lived
in that community, and on account of
the circumstantial character of the
~eVfdence, not to permit the execution.
Lieutenant Governor Smith of Min
nesota also write a personal letter to
the governor asking him to commute
1.-The sentence if the evidence justified
it. There was a protest signed by 135
citizens Of Dawson county and there
We're several letters from people there
opposing executive clemency. Hurst's
attorney will not stop with the gov
ernor's refusal to interfere, but will
make a last effort to secure a stay in
the courts by an application for a writ
OF probable cause. Advices from
Glendive are that the sheriff is pre-
pairing for the execution and will carry
out the mandate Of the court next Fri
day unless stopped by the courts.
Another report says: There was an
affecting scene in the governors pri-
vate office when Mrs. Joseph G. Hurst,
wife of the man condemned to die at
Glendiye Friday for numbering Sheriff
Domlnick Cayanaugh, made a fearful
plea to the governor to commute the
sentence to lift imprisonment. In COM
pany with w. S. Hurst, the young
mans father, Mrs. Hurst visited the
governor and was granted what
proved a very painful interview. She
pleaded as only a woman can plead
Q executive clemency. She asked
that her husbands life might be spared
in the belief that another committed
the crime, and that action by the gov
ernor would prevent penetrating a