The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1904-06-16
GRAVES GETS ThEILIMIT
Judge MCHenry Scores Confessed
Wife Murderer and Sends Him
toPrison for Eight Years.


Eight years, the longest term in the
power of the court under the plea ac-
cepted, was given Charles W. Graves
at Des Moines last Saturday by Judge
McHenry, for the murder of his wife.
In sentencing the prisoner the court
applied one of the most scathing denun-
Citations ever heard in the criminal
court room.
Judge McHenry spoke at length on
the evidence presented on the trial of
the case and expressed genuine sorrow
that the powers of the court were not
such as would permit sentence many
times as great as the one inflicted.
Graves sat through the ordeal without
a vince and at the close walked to the
door with his head hanging in shame as
the crowded court room gazed with dis
gust at the retreating form of the fortu-
nate wife murderer.
Judge McHenry in sentencing Graves,
said:
"You have represented in this court
strange and remarkable case. You
were indicted for the crime of murder
in the first degree, charged to have
been committed by choking your wife to
death. The evidence Of the state was
circumstantial, no witness was found
nor could be found who could tell what
had occurred between you and your
wife, on that fatal day when her lifeless
body was found in your home. shall
not undertake to detail all the evil
dence.
''For some time prior to her death
you and she had been quarreling and
fighting repeatedly, and you have in
nearly every instant wound up the
argument by choking her, in fact you
had done this SO often at disclosure, at
least inferentially, by the testimony,
that it had become habit with you to
pounce upon her and choke her when
ever you became engaged in a quarrel.
Another matter that might be men,
toned here, is the fact that when she
attempted to procure divorce from
that you became very humble and al
most begged her to return to you and
dismiss her action. The conclusion to
be drawn from these facts is that you
did not want to be rid of her, and that
yon had violent temper, which you
made no effort to control, and brutal
disposition which was manifested in re-
peated assaults upon your wife.
''The evidence in your case is all cir
cumstantial. You are very fortunate
man. In fact that there is not one word
of evidence which tends to show what
occurred on that fatal day between you
and your wife, or any single circum-
stance relating to the manner of the
commission Of your crime, save and ex-
cept the testimony of the physicians
that your wife died from asphyxiation,
or in other words for the want of
breath, from which it may be reasonably
inferred in the absence of any other ex-
PLANTATION that she was strangled to
death. A jury might rightly infer from
this testimony that you were guilty of
what the law calls manslaughter. A
homicide in this state must be in one or
three degrees. Manslaughter, murder
in the second degree, and murder in the
first degree. Under our statutes if one
person kills another in a sudden and
unexpected quarrel without intention
of producing death, he is guilty of man
slaughter; if he was doing at the time
an unlawful act less than felony.
Murder must be an unlawful killing of a
human being with malice aforethought.
Murder in the first degree is murder
deliberately and premeditatedly carried
out. Under the testimony in this case
every lawyer knows that you are guilty
Of manslaughter, and that verdict of
anything higher would not be justified
by the facts disclosed in the testimony.
Our law in it's charity presumes the
lesser degree of every crime, until the
higher degree is proven beyond rea-
sonable doubt.
SIN your case the presumption of law
is that your crime is manslaughter, and
the state is without evidence to show
acts or circumstances that would in
crease your crime to murder. This is
unfortunate for the state as | view it
for am satisfied that with the moral
turpitude you have manifested in your
past career and in this climax Of your
life, that you richly deserve much
more serious punishment than l can
inf1ict upon you under the laws of this
state.
"Your entire treatment of your wife
as disclosed in this testimony, evidenc.
ed in you depraved and distorted
character, which Justly entitle you te
the contempt and condemnation o1
every decent man. The county attor
ney of this county, confronted by this
cepting plea of manslaughter in this
Z cdSe. his uuUy anu IHIue Is 10 punlSn
not according to our arbitrary ideas Of
what the punishment should be, bu1
according to the statutes and within
the limits prescribed by law. The great
trouble in your case is that the Law
does not give the Judge sufficient latti
tude in the punishment for manslaugh
ter. Even if the burning of your wife.
body was not a part of your crime, az
charged in the Indictment, yet il
morals, it is circumstance that the
court would have the right to consider
in fixing the punishment in your case
but when l attempt to do SO am con
frontcd with the statute that limits
your punishment to eight years in tn,
penitentiary.
repeat the moral turpitude that tn.
testimony in this case has disclose,