The Sunday globe., 1901-05-19

III per cent, duu luS pdiOllIB VI DuI-
guiars was discouraged. Men who, in
the heat of passion, in general fight
or temporarily labori lg under a species
of insanity brought on by their perse-
cutiOns commit murder in any of its de.
grees, are as "a class accidental convicts,
that Is, they are not criminals in the
sense Of moral depravity and profes-
sional following of crime for q subsis-
ence. They may never commit an
other crime in their lives, as they have
never violated the law except in the
solitary instance of the crime for which
they were convicted. Now, these men,
If their crime is not too atrocious and
deserving Of the extreme penalty of the
law, are the proper persons to be given
paroles and chance after reasonable
expiation behind the walls.
OF course, men who assassinate or
VINO poison their victims, kill for money
or for the possession Of a paramours, are
excluded from this category of eligibles
and should suffer death or be inn
prisoned for life IN fact as In theory.
There are over one hundred life prison.
ers behind the walls of the Ohio peni-
tentiary for murder in the second de-
gree, and many OF them have been con-
fined for the past quarter of a century.
| These men have no influential friends
on the outside, and it has been the Gus
| tom in Ohio, time immemOrial, to in
vestigate the cases of the more meTi-
! torious among this class aud present
one of their number holiday pardon,
Christmas day, Thanksgiving day, the
4th of Jul, and under Gov Bushnell
Memorial Day were the days upon
which these favors were conferred.
Gov. Bushnell inaugurated the practice
of pardoning an old soldier life prisoner
on Memorial Day. Gov. Nash, the
present incumbent Of the Gubernatorial
chair, who was a ninety-day soldier, has
set this humane practice aside and par
dons neither old soldier nor anybody
else, either on holidays or week days.
He will realize in the coming campaign
in Ohio that inhumanity, towards the
olds oldiers specially does not pay, and
| that it will be rebuked.
Among the life prisoners in the Ohio
prison are numbers Of meritorious cases
known to the writer, who had superior
means to investigate not only the facts
in the case, but to form correct esti-
mate Of the characters of the men un-
dergoiug the penalty for the one sin OF
! their lives. We propose in this paper
/ to name few from the number OF those
| deserving clemency and whose grade OF
/ crime is but the mere caprice of jury
or Is due TO circumstances other than
the direct testimony offered against
| them.
James-Britton, "A Highland county
| farmer and man who was universally
respected by the people of his county,
whose family and connections are the
| leading citizens of that portion Of the
State and whose Christian character
and virtuous life within and without
the prison walls is proven by the OIL
cial Investigations made in his case, has
been twice rejected by the Board of Par.
dons for commutation of his life SEN
tence or for pardon. These reflections
are due solely to the fact that the friends
of the victim of Britton's bullet are in
/ fuential people and they are determined
he shall die in prison if they can keeT
him there.
Britton's first wife died, and her rela-
tives set up the allegation that she died
from overwork on the farm. 1t was
proven, however, that she always had
servants, and even carriage at her dis
posal.
Mr.. Britton owned at the time one ol
the finest farms in the State, was rich
and could afford the luxuries his wife
enj lyed. But Bntton committed the
objectionable sin of remarrying, and
then the relatives of his first wife be-
came more specific, notably brother O
the deceased lady, who never missed an
opportunity of hurting epithets at Brit
] 4 l. L., 30 a,,i
on until Britton was almost insane, but
being an extremely religious man lac
managed to control his feelings, and his
family, whom he dearly loved, was an
other restraint which kept him from
violating the law.
One day, however, in driving through
the town of Hillsborough his brother
in-law was passed sitting on chair in
front of hotel, and as he saw Brittor
he exclaimed: "There goes the hypo
crie son of a --- who worked and
starved his wife to death" Impul
sively Britton drew revolver and fired
in the direction of his brotheT-in-law
The bullet killed him on the spot, anC
BrittOn was, of course, arrested anC
tried for the crime, The first trial re-
suited in a second degree murder YER
dict, but this was set aside and new
trial ordered in an adjoining county
Here for five years he remained in Jail
and finally securing the services of the
notorious criminal lawyer Charles
Blackburn, of Cincinnati, he was ad
vised, after paying that crooked mem.
ber of the bar Al 900 to let the trial judge
settle the degree Of the crime, assuring
Britton at the same time that the de-
gree would be manslaughter, and that
in view of his long Incarceration he
would get off with a few years in the
penitentiary. Britton fatally consent.
ed, and the equally notorious Dave
Pugh, of Columbus (now happily of
the bench he prOst sttuted), As presiding
Judge, after BTittOn's plea, fixed the
grade at second degree and sentenced
the unfortunate man to life imprlson
ment Bntton has now been in prison
much longer than the ten-year period
/ Governor Mckinley fixed or recon-.
mended life man should serve and be
/ paroled.
If ever there was a real true Christian
confined behind prison walls that man
is Britton. He is president OF the bible
class Of the prison aud is universally re-
spected by both officials and cOnvicts,
the most hardened of whom acknowl-
edge the brand of Britton's christianity
as the genuine article.
Thomas Rice has been in prison
about twenty years. He was convicted
/ in Canton, where he was on spree at
the time, of murder i'm the second de.
gree. although the crime committed
would be exaggerated if called man
slaughter.