Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1901-12-10
Attorneys for Condemned Bank
Robbers Prepare Motion for
New Trial.
Will Appeal to the Supreme
Court If the Rehearine
is Denied.
Not Likely That the Two Men
Will Ever Be Hanged
in Iowa.
Special to Times-Republlcan.


for the two condemned bank robber
have prepared a motion for a new tria
They cite forty specific grounds upo
which they allege rehearing should b
granted. They state that if the motion
is denied an appeal will be taken t
the supreme court Sheriff Parker an
his deputy, Orville James. left yester
day for Anamosa to place Brooks an
Philips, the condemned murderers o
John Sundblad of Albert City, in tn
i penitentiary. The men are under sen
tence to be hanged December Is, 1892
The prisoners maintained their accus
toned composure turnout.
Des Moines. Dec. 10.-One of the i'm.
portant acts of Governor A. b. Cum.
Minis first year in Office will be to deter
/ mine whether or not he will sign the
death warrants of Albert Phillips anG
Lewis Brooks, the bank robbers SEN
| fenced at Storm Lake to be hanged. I'm
| der the Iowa law a year must elapse
between the date that the court deter
mines that the murderers must hang
and the date that they pay the extreme
an Iowa penitentiary.
| There are now confined in the Fort
Madison penitentiary two convicted
E'urderers, sent up from Polk. county,
under sentence of death, daily awaiting
the signing of their death warrants by
| the governor. but so far Governors
Jackson, Drake and Shaw have refused
OF omitted signing the warrants and the
men are still waiting.
II Governor Cummins follows the
precedent established by his three i'm
mediate predecessors he will not sign
the Greenville bank robbers death war
rants. and they will end their days in
states prison. under sentence of death,
but waiting for the warrant that never
comes.
Section 4,732 OF the Iowa code specifies
legal hanging as follows. in penalty for
murder in the first degree:
When the court or jury shall direct
that defendant be punished by death
the court pronuoncing judgment shall
fix the day OF the execution thereof,
which shall not be less than one year
after the day on which the judgment is
rendered. and not longer than Dfteen
months. during which time the defend-
ant shall be imprisoned in the peniten-
tiary"
In the meantime the men will be sent
await hanging or spend the remainder
OF their natural lives.
The sentence of hanging must be re-
ferred to the governor, who in this case
will be Mr.. Cummins, and the death
warrant signed or neglected by him. II
Governor Cummins signs the death war
rants the Greenville bank robbers will
be the first men hanged in Iowa since
1895. the date Of the last execution in
the penitentiary corridors at Fort Madi-
son.
1t is possible, however, that Phillips
and Brooks may languish in prison cells
all their lives. despite the jury's SEN
tence and the courts decree Of death by
hanging. This will be possible not alone
by executive clemency, but by executive
default, as has been done in the past.
Examination of the prison records to-
day shows two men, Weems and Hamill
confined now in the penitentiary at Fort
Madison, who were sentenced in the
Polk county district court six years ago
to be hanged by the neck until dead.
Weems and Hamill were convicted Of
the murder of Redpath, a conductor on
the Chicago Great Western railway.
Joe McGarragh was sheriff of Polk
county in those days, and, expecting to
be obliged to ofticiate at the hanging oe
Weems and Hamill. in the Fort Madison
prison, he sent his deputy, George Mat
tern, the present sheriff of Polk county,
to witness the hanging of man named
Dooley, convicted in Adams county |
This was in 1895. Mr.. Mattern, accom-.
panied by AL Moore (then reporter for
the Daily CapitaD, went to Fort Madi-
son and witnessed the hanging Of Doc
ley. Mattern paid particular attention
10 all the details, and watched the exc
nution carefully, expecting to be called |
upon to tie the knot and act as star exc
cutioner at the approaching hanging of |
Weems and Hamill.
Pending the expiration of the year, |
under the law. Weems and HamilI were
in the state prison at Fort |
Madison. Frank D. Jackson was gov |
arnor of Iowa then, and the decree of |
the court was sent him from Polk coun-
ly. He refused to sign the death war /
rants Of the two men, and they re-
manned In prison, unhanged. When
Governor F. NJ. Drake was inaugurated /
ard served he did not take any official
,ognizance OF the two convicted muir
1erers, and they remained in Fort Madl-
son, awaiting death. The matter went
oy default under Drake, and was never
brought up in Governor Shaw's two
terms. going by default for six years SO
hat the execution Of the Two men will
low probably never occur.
The hanging of Dooley at Fort Madi-
son, witnessed by Sheriff Mattern, was
he next to the last legal hanging in
iowa. The last was the hanging of
cumberland. Of Shelby county, at the
Fort Madison penitentiary later in the
1ear of 1895. Joe McGarragh was still
serving as sheriff of Polk county then,
md expecting the execution Of Weems
md Hamill he and his deputy, Charles
Morrow, went to Fort Madison and wit
lessed Cumberland's execution That
vas the last in the state; all death sem
cnces since that time having been COM
Luted by the governor or allowed to go
~ default, the men serving life sem
ences instead of paying the extreme
penalty of the law.
About twenty years ago man named
George, habitue Of that por-
ion of Des Moires Familiarity known
hen as "below the deadline," was sem
enced to be hanged for the murder of
= L