The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1904-05-21
Relatives Of VIM. Chounard
Want Death Sentence Com
muted by Governor.
PETITION TO GOVERNOR CIR.
CuLATEDz In BEMIDJI.
Sister and Aunt of Condemned
Man Want His Sentence
COMMITTED to Life.

Mrs. E. H. Hit, Of Brainerd,
and Mrs. j. Fl. Young, of Little
Falls, sister and aunt respec.
lively, of VIM. Chounard, sen
fenced by Judge Spooner at the
last term Of the Cass county dis
trict court to be hung for the
murder Of his wife Dora Choun-
ard, in house Of i'll fame at Cass
Lake, were in city yesterday Cir
culating a petition to Governor
Van Santasking for Communication
Of Chounard s sentence to life.
Both ladies came in from Cass
Lake yesterday afternoon and
circulated the petition in the
business portion Of the city last
night. They obtained large
number of signatures. The
spectacle Of a sister pleading for
the life Of her brother was too
pathetic to admit Of resistance
and while many Of the signatures
did not prehaps indicate the
sincerest convictions of the
signers there were no refusals
to sign the paper.
The Mesdames Young and Hit
began securing signatures at
Cass Lake yesterday. they Sc
cured about four hundred sigma
lures in all, including about forty
Of the business men at Cass Lake.
Nearly everybody we asked
signed, said Mrs. Hit last
night. '.Two Of the men at the
mill refused us. l cannot think
of my brother dying in such a
terrible manner withoutan effort
in his behalf. Perhaps he stands
convicted of an awful crime, but
to die on the galloWs, it seems to
me. is a swift and awful retribu
ton. Perhaps from one point Of
view life Imprisonment is worse
than death, but | am sure his
relatives would rather know that
he suffers out the penalty Of his
crime behind the prison walls at
Saltwater than to feel that he
has hanged. [ cannot bear the
thought. Whiskey cursed him
and to5its influence is due all his
shortcomings. He would never
have committed the deed if he
had been in his sober senses.
Must sisters and mothers suffer
the agony OF knowing that a
brother OF Son comes to such an
awful death when the laws of our
land license the sale of this
curse? 1t seems to me there is
some latitude here that Governor.
Van SAINT will recognize
The petition will he personally
presented to Coverings ! - SAINT
ubo ~ I'll, - ned mans sister,
VINO, VINO WI ne.f prepared to make a
cie%eaaff-zF plea for executive
IR5 will no doubt receive the
Governor s most careful consider
alton. At the trial when Attor-
ney Larson attempted to secure
Chounard's consent toa plea Of
guilty to murder in the second
degree which would have meant
a life sentence he refused it and
called the attention of his attor
ney to the case of man who had
committed a similar crime under
like circumstances and had got
ten off with ten years sentence.
The death sentence was passed
by Judge Spooner at the conclu-
sion Of the trial after the most
careful deliberation. 1t was gen
orally remarkedEin the courtroom
that the ordeal to the court in
passing it's first death sentence
was more keenly felt than the
sentence itself by the prisoner,
who did not seem to appreciate
the full meaning of it all.
The case is regarded by attor-
neys as being one of the clearest
which has ever been in court in
the Fifteenth judicial district.
The defendants attorneys were
allowed every advantage and
there was not an error in the
course of the trial.
- sEhora- ic no. lnro1, eSn-nn1uon,f En-