The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1905-04-20

EeSteu, Cnere Is not very much to OfteI
I in mitigation of the sentence in this
case. OF course this man did not mur-
der this young woman because he want
ed to murder her,>but if he committed
murder as the jury has found he did, it
was because of the fact that he was
seeking to relieve her of the trouble at
| her suggestion perhaps, or the suggest
/ ion of her sweetheart, so that in passing
| judgment the court has to consider all
these things. | can see how faithful
old family physician upon an appeal
from the mother of the child whose good
name was involved might so far forget
himself that he would co nit crime
of this character. He might do it with
a protest in his heart and even in that
case, if he was convicted, this court
would be compelled to give him ten
years in the penitentiary. So while a
faithful old family physician might do
such a thing it would be as much a vio-
lation of the law as in this case, yet
everyone in the sound of my voice can
see how it would appeal to the jury and
to court where a man does it under
protest and because of his close rela-
tions to the person seeking to have it
done. This defendant, of course, has
served period of something like eight
months in the penitentiary and the
court in passing his sentence takes into
consideration the fact that he has
served these eight months and he has
deducted from what he would ordinarily
give the defendant the period of time
he has already served. So, Mr.. Crof-
ford, it will be the Judgment, order and
sentence of the court that you be con-.
fined in the state penitentiary at Fort
Madison at hard labor for the period of
twelve years, and pay the costs of this
action, and your appeal bond will be
fixed at 81 12,500.
Before being sentenced DR.. Crofford
handed written statement to the Judge
but it was not made public, as at the re-
quest of his attorneys it was returned
to them and no record made of it.
DR.. Crofford Immediately gave the re-
quircd bond of $12,50O, signed by ]. N.
Brown, of Lamont, NJ. G. Belts and A. W.
Davis, of Hamilton township, which was
approved and he was released from Gus
tody pending the appeal again to the
supreme court, and his attorneys are
very confident that when the case is
submitted to the supreme court they
will again grant him new trial on ac-
count of the errors alleged in their mo-
tion for new trial.
The case against DR.. Crofford has been
one of the hardest fought legal battles
in the history of the state, and has cost
Decatur county a large sum of money,
including the trial of Ira Hammond, the
Tower of Maude Stone, who was jointly
indicted with DR.. Crotford, but was ac-
quilted by a jury at Mt. Ayr, to which
place the case was taken on change of
venue. And while it seems to be the
general opinion of a large majority of
the people of Decatur county that the
verdict is a just one, and that DR.. Crof-
ford should be punished, there is no
question but what DIR. Grofford has a
number of staunch friends who will
never believe that heiis guilty of this
crime.
The case has been most vigorously
prosecuted by attorneys Geo. W. Baker
and A. p. Olsen, who have made splen-
did record for the Jealous manner in
which they have worked up the case.
They are both rising young attorneys
and were pitted against the best legal
talent in southern Iowa, and this second
conviction speaks volumes for their
ability as attorneys and they can natur-
ally take great pride in the outcome of
the case. The attorneys for the de-
fendant, V. R. McGinnis, of this city and
NJ. l.. Temple, of Osceola, put up great
fight for their client and fought the
case inch by inch. After the former
conviction they carried the case to the
supreme court, firm in the belief that
their client had not been granted fair
and impartial trial and had the satisfac-
tion of seeing the supreme court decide
they were right in their contentious.
They are just as confident that the case
will again be reversed by. the supreme
court.