The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-08-06
pARDoNS WITH STRINGS.

HNhOON0 WI n . hINOo'
An interesting question as TO the
right of a governor to revoke pardon
he has issued has come up in the state
of Washington A girl was murdered
by a man who was. or at least pretend
ed TO be, in love with her. The man
was convicted and, through some mis-
taken notion of mercy in the trial jury
or court was let off with a life SEN
tence in prison. instead of being hanged
as he should have been. The fellow
went to the penitentiary and, after
serving for a few years. his health be-
gan to fail. Physicians said he could
not live more than a few months at
most. so the governor pardOned him.
The air of freedom agreed with the
one-time prisoner. He became hale and
hearty. What is worse. he began as
sociating with bad companions and
there was every indication that he
would again become a criminal. The
governor sought to revoke the pardon
but the ex-convict had won for himself
some sympathy and was able to take
his case into the courts. The lower
court decided against him and now the
case has been taken before the highest
tribunal I'm the state. Its decision is
awaited with the greatest interest.
Nobody has disputed the moral right
of the governor to take the action he
did take That the pardon, under the
circumstances, should have been re-
voked is not denied. The matter is be-
ing argued solely on the legal phase
Of the case. Has a governor, after is
suing a pardon. the right to revoke It?
Does the pardon take its place among
the words described by the poet:
Boys flying kites haul in their white
winged birds,
You can't do that when you're flying
words"
Ohio had a similar case, and it went
against the governor, or the state.
There a prisoner who had been sem
fenced to serve five years for burglary,
one Knapp. pretended to have con-
sumption. A dishonest physician GER
tified that he was in the last stages OF
the disease. A pardon was granted by
the governor but Knapp had not been
liberated when the fraud was discov-
eied and the Ohio governor told the
warden of the penitentiary 10 hold the
prisoner, declaring he had revoked the
pardon.
The case was taken at once to the
Ohio supreme court. 1t was held there
that the pardon was valid and that it
could not be revoked. The warden was
even lectured for holding the prisoner
on the governors order. the court de-
claring that with equal right the
sheriff might have hanged Knapp after
being pardoned."
The American and English Encyclo-
paedia of law covers this very point
when it says:
IF the pardon is not void in its in
ception it cannot be revoked for any
cause after its delivery and acceptance
are complete, for then It has passed
beyond the control of the officer or
. body who granted it and becomes a
valid and operative act, of the bene-
fits Of which its recipient can be de-
prived only in some appropriate legal
proceeding. Thus. where a conditional
pardon and amnesty has been granted
and its conditions have been complied
with no subsequent art of the executive
can impair its effect or deprive its re-
cipient of the rights he has thereby
acquired"
Nobody can say how the supreme
court of the state of Washington will
decide the question but if it decides
against the murderer ii will upset
every precedent. The man was freed by
a voluntary act of the governor of the
state; it is admitted that the governor
had the right to take the action But
he cannot recall it any more than he
could recall his signature to a note
given for proper and reasonable con-
siderat ton.