The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-12-08
WOMAN
DIES ON GALLONS
3 Continued From First Page.

as his life ebbed was the wife IS ieering
laugh. When he was dead she and
Perham unwound the rope and rolled
the body into creek a foot deep.
Then the woman scrubbed a note
purporting. to be written by the man
as a preliminary to suicide. She pinned
the scrawl to her husbands hat. Next
Rogers had disappeared. The body was
found in few hours. 1t soon became
plain the man had been suffocated, not
drowned. Then it was learned that
Mrs. Rogers had told friends what she
would do with the $500 for which his
life was insured. She even selected
furniture she was to buy with the
money. 49,.
It was shown in the trial that her
father tried to kill her mother before
she was born and that her childhood
was passed amid vicious surroundings,
but the atrocious nature of her crime,
revealed by Perham s confession,
dragged verdict Of murder in the
first degree from the unwilling jury.
and both he and Mrs. Rogers were
found guilty of murder in the first de-
gree. Perham was sentenced to I'M
prisonment for life, while the sentence
| in Mrs. Rogers case, was death on the
gallows.
~ EfOrtS Tor PARDON. --..
Under the Vermont law, the power
of Communication of sentence rests with
the legislature, and the law also pro-
vides that when a person is sentenced
to death, session of the legislature
must be held between the time Of sem
tence and the date set for the execu-
ton.
At the last session Of the legislature
various attempts were made to com,
mute Mrs. Rogers sentence, but all
failed. Then an attempt was made to
pass law abolishing capital punish
ment in Vermont, but that also failed.
An attempt to secure a pardon for the
woman shared the same fate. A bill
was then introduced providing. for the
appointment Of state commission to
examine into the woman 8 sanity This
bill passed the house unanimously, but
was defeated in the state senate.
The date set for the execution was
Feb. 3, 1905. On Feb. after Mrs.
Rogers had received the last rites Of
the Roman Catholic church, Governor
Bell granted her reprieve until June
in order that the claim of her attor-
be heard before the Vermont supreme
| court in an attempt to secure for the
| woman a new trial.
On May II last the full bench Of the
Vermont supreme court heard the evil
dence on which the petition for a new
| trial was based, and little more than
! q week later denied the retitlon.
The Second Reprieve.
On June /, second reprieve by Gov
ernor Bell removed the doomed woman
from under the shadow Of the scaffold.
| This reprieve was ganted in order that
| the United States supreme court might
| pass upon the constitutionality and le-
gality of the proceedings governing
| Mrs. Rogers sentence.
| The United States supreme court was
| then petitloned for a writ of error in
order that the case might 20 before the
highest tribunal, but this was denied.
On June 10 habeas corpus proceedings
were instituted. Further legal activity
on the part Of the condemned woman g
attorneys resulted in the case being. car
ried before the supreme courttsof the
United States on an appeal from the
rulings of the Vermont court. On Nov.
81 last the United States supreme court
refused to stay the sentence Of the
| Vermont court.
With the decision of the highest court
in the land Mrs. Rogers last hope for
life vanished, as Governor Bell had an.
nounced that he would not. interfere
with the sentence Of the court.
Others Granted Clemency.
Mrs Rogers is the first person SEN
fenced to death in Vermont within the
past thirteen years who was refused
clemency. The last murderer executed
in the state was Sylvester Bell, who
was hanged in 1892 for wife murder.
The last woman to be executed was Mrs.
Emeline Moeker, who paid the death
penalty at Windsor on March 80, 1888
In Vermont. all executions are held at
the state prison and by popularity of
condemned murderers devolves upon the
sheriff Of Windsor county, reg ardless
of. the section Of the state in which the