The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-07-11
CITY NEWS
WOMAN WILL PLEAD
FOR BROTHERS. LIFE
Relatives VIII Make Last Des-
perate Effort to Save
Chounard

Inc state board of pardons, when it
considers the application for commu-
tatlon OF sentence from death to life
Imprisonment Of William Chounard on
TUESDAY morning, will have to sum-
mon all Its powers of resistance if il
denies the petition, for Mrs. M. J.
Hit. of Brainerd, only sister of the
condemned man, is prepared to make a
strong plea for the suspension of the
extreme penalty in the case of her
brother, the convicted man.
Mrs. Hit, accompanied by Beatrice,
the little four-year- daughter of the
condemned man, and by Mrs. j. H.
Young, of Little Fails, aunt of Chou
nard, Is at the Merchants hotel await
Ing the sitting of the board Of par
dons. Notice has been sent Chou
nard's lawyers that the case will be
considered by the board on Tuesday
morning, other cases being taken up
at the Monday session of the board.
Il only hope the board of pardons
will look at the case in the same light
that and that more than 5000 people
OF Northern Minnesota do" Mrs. Hit
said last night at her room in the st.
Paul hotel.
MY brothers case presents extra
ordinary features. He was so drunk
that he did not know what he did
when he shot Dora Chounard, his
common-law wife. Jan. %, at Cass
Lake. The evidence that we are pre-
pared to present to the board shows
that by actual count he had taken
eighty-three drinks of whisky that
day and he was simply crazed by the
liquor.
Missed Parents Care
INV hrOfh0r uyhn ic, cfi1
man, and l lost our parents when we
were still very young. He was ten
years old and 1 was eight and after
our parents died at Little Falls we
went to live with our old grandmother
at Belle Prairie. a small French settle
ment in Morrison county. Had our
parents lived it is more than likely
that my brother would have turned out
differently, but with only an old wom-
an to look after him he wandered away
as soon as he was old enough to go
and we heard little or nothing of him.
When in a drunken frenzy he killed
Dora Chounard, the woman with whom
he had been living for some years.
then for the first time We learned that
he had sunk to such a level. There
can be no excuse for his crime, and he
should be punished. But we insist that
In his drunken condition-he had been
drunk for days-he could not premedi-
tate the act. He was in such a physi-
cal and mental condition that he must
have been unable to effect a design
upon any ones life, and then, too, it
appears that he was madIy in love with
poor Dora and there was no possible
| reason why he should want to take her
life. The shooting was simply the eff
feet of the bad whisky on an excitable
French temperament.
breads Haneman's Moose
81 admit he should be punished, but
for the sake of this poor little inno-
cent child 1 hope that the pardoning
board will send him to Saltwater for
life and not let her go into the world
with the stain of an executed fathers
shame hanging over her all the days
Of her life.
we have secured a petition signed
by 5000 people. many of them resi-
dents of Cass county and familiar
with the facts in the awful case. Ten
| of the twelve jurors who found my
| brother guilty of murder in the first
degree have also signed the petition,
and it does seem to me that the men
who have my brothers life in their
hands will grant our petition"
The little white-haired girl played
| about the room in the hotel oblivious
| of the fact that within two days her
unfortunate fathers fate will be set
tied. The child is in the custody of
her aunt and will be present at the
| hearing before the pardoning board.
L. II. Bailey, Bemidji attorney, ac-
companied Mrs. Hit and her elderly
aunt to st. Paul, and with A. T. Lar
son, the Brainerd lawyer who defended
Chounard at his trial at Walker in
February, will present the evidence
and make the argument in support of
Chounard's application for commuta-
ton of the death penalty to imprison-
ment for life.
THE convicted mans relatives have
spent everything they have in the
world to save him from the hang
! mans moose" Bailey said last night,
"and 1 have brought them to st. Paul
to make their plea before the board
of pardons. 1 expect to make a strong
case for the exercise of clemency for
the cnndannnad man