The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-04-25

# Herman Burcn, ueSTo, oi Dur sS ;x lock County, sentenced to three < sa years imprisonment, paroled. % E SA%%&&%&& $ a is < $ < Ss is < e <
 Three State convicts were given their liberty by Governor Jelks yesterday ana the political and civil rights of white man who has served term in the Fed eral penitentiary were restored. TWO or the convicts, a negro and white man,
 were granted unconditional pardons, and the third, a negro boy. was paroled con- tiitioned on his future good behaVior. John Stanford, the negro who was par doned, was from Montgomery County. and was serving life sentence.
 Each of the cases were sent to the GOV ernor by the State Pardoning Board, which met Wednesday, with recommen- dations that executive clemency be exer- cised.
 The pardoning yesterday of Tom Jor- dan. a white man, of Washington County. recalls the lynching of Christopher Cham- bliss in Washington County ten years ago. Chambliss, who was white man,
 was hanged from bridge over small stream It was said that thirty-nlne
 white men participated in the lynching and fourteen of them, including some of
 the best known men in the county, were indicted. Several of those indicted left the county and removed to Mississippi
 Arrests and convictions have followed
 from time to time and at east eight or
 the men indicted have been sent to the
 penitentiary for ten years. each upon con-
 victions of murder in the second degree.
 The real cause of the lynching Of Cham
 biss may never be known. His friends
 contend that his death was due to poiti-
 cal differences with his neighbors. The
 friends of the men indicted for lynching
 Chambliss claimed that the dead man
 was an outlaw and had burned several
 houses in the community in which he
 lived.
 The lynching of Chambliss has been
 brought to the attention of each Governor
 who> has served since it occurred and applications for the pardon of all of the
 men who are in the penitentiary upon conviction of participation in the crime are on, file at the Capitol. Tom Jordan was arrested in 1897 and remained in jail about two years before he was sent to the penitentayy. He was convicted of murder in the second degree at the spring term of the Washington
 County Circuit Court, in 1899. and was
 sentenced to ten years. He Is now at
 Speigners where he is a hospital steward under the direction of Dr. Humphries, Convict Physician.
 At the time of the lynching of Cham bliss, Jordan was quite young man and large petition. signed by some of the best citizens of Washington County, has reached the Governor.
 This man was only 21 years of age
 when this crime was committed" says the endorsement of Governor Jelks upon the application. 'I assume that he was under the influence largely of oyer thirty other older persons engaged In the same crime The more conspicuous persons connected with the brutal affair have been pardoned or paroled. This man had | a good character before the commission | of the offense and for seven or eight years between the crime and his convic- | ton was a law-abiding citizen. Because | of his character before and after the crime the petition of good people in his behalf, the recommendation of the Par doning Board, and. more than all, on ac- | count of his youth at the time. and the pardon of others more seriously guilty, l let pardon issue to him"
 William Few, Jerry Few, John Ham, brick and Tom Britton are among the other men who were sent to the peniten- tiary upon conviction of participation in the lynching of Chambliss. They have
 made several futile attempts to secure pardons.
 John Stanford Pardoned. John Stanford, the Montgomery County negro pardoned by Governor Jelks has | been in the penitentiary fourteen years. He was convicted in the Montgomery | City Court, Judge Arlington presiding, | April II, 1888. and was sentenced to life | imprisonment, April 17th. He was con victed of carnal knowledge of a negro girl, Venus Collins, who Is now a wo- man and lives in Peacock's tract. Stanford was a negro preacher and carpenter When he was first transferred to the Convict Department he was leased to the lumber mills controlled by Colonel l. J. Flowers at Boiling and worked there several years. During his stay there he discovered d conspiracy among the convicts to make their escape and re-
 ported the matter to the officers of the camp. Colonel Flowers joined in the petitiSn for executive clemency to Stan ford. who Is now leased to the Hand Lumber Company.
 In pardoning Stanford the Governor says
 This man has grown old in the service l of the State. He has been in the penl- tentiary about fourteen years. equivalent l to a sentence of the court of twenty-four wears and eight months. l am informed | that he only has a little more of this life ahead of him. 1t appears that he has been sufficiently punished and an add- tional reason for clemency rises In the successful effort this man, made to inter fere with a conspiracy of other convicts
 to escape from the camp where they were l at work Let a pardon issue.
 stanford Is 56 years old. He was twice denied A pardon by Governor Johnston. Parole for Herman Burch. Nn1 a fn