The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1904-06-16
SUCCESSFUL PERJURY.

If Charles w. Graves is allowed to
commit the most damnable crime in the
records of Polk county-to deliberately
choke his wife to death and then set fire
to her remains, combining arson with
murder in it's most aggravated form
and to escape the law with a chicken
stealing sentence-what does the whole
judicial proceedings amount to but to
put premium upon we'll sustained per-
jury? What but to serve notice on the
criminally inclined that all that is nee
essary for them to do is to lie and stick
to it long enough with a straight face,
and they will be allowed later to tell
the truth on basis of compromise that
will be satisfactory to them?
Here is man who has by his own
confession choked hark-working and,
so far as known, estimable woman to
death, after having harrassed and
threatened her for years. He has then
fired the house she lay dead in, threat
ening the property and lives of the
neighborhood. To complete the cate
CORY of crime he has lied before God
and the court with consistency and
persistency that entitle him for that
alone to spend his remaining years in
the penitentiary. And for all of these
multiplied offenses he is to be given a
sentence that some poor devil receives
who has accidentally and with no GRIM
inal intent whatever taken human life.
1t is such miscarriages of Justice as this
that incite mob violence. 1t is such
miscarriages of justice as this that war
rant mob violence. The brute has not
yet been burned alive, who better de-
served his fate than Graves would de-
serve it if he had been substituted.
If Graves is allowed to go to the pcni-
Tertiary with a third degree sentence
and is not further prosecuted for arson
and perjury in such way as to secure
a continuing penalty adequate to hi !;
crimes, every man and woman now serv
ing time should be released. Think of
sending Sara Kuhn to the penitentiary
for life, merely because her decrepit
and impotent husband took strychnine
which no one has been able to trace to
her either directly or Indirectly, and
then of putting Graves beside her for
eight years! Even Mrs. Gallagher,
after having secured acquittal of the
charge of murder, is struggling to es-
cape sentence of fifteen years for per-
jury.
If it is impossible to sentence Graves
for more serious otfense than man
(slaughter, on account of the murder of
his wife, the whole proceeding to date
should be quashed, and he should be in
dicted either for arson or perjury OF
both. For arson he can be sentenced
for thirty years, and for perjury in such
a case as this, for life. In either case
his punishment will be somewhat ade-
quate, even if not administered for the
most aggravated of his crimes. To
sentence him for manslaughter is ride
ulous. Manslaughter is one Of the least
of the offenses on the criminal calendar
Even Selling locomotive and running
away with it is ten-year offense, while
burning an empty dwelling house in
broad daylight calls for fifteen years
Graves crimes bear no more relation to
manslaughter than they do to firing a
toy pistol on the Fourth Of July, and to
punish for the one is as inadequate as it
would be to punish him for the other
Register and Leader.