Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1906-07-04
fcoyumbia State, June 24th.l

he had granted Hoyt Hayes full
pardon. To no other matter which
he has had to consider has Governor
Hayward given more careful and
earnest thought than to the case of
Hoyt Hayes.
Hayes has since October, 1904,
been in the State penitentiary, the
sentence to death having at that time
been commuted to life imprisonment:
by Governor Hayward. The Gov
ernor's action then was based upon
the grave doubts of Hayes guilt.
Since then he has studied the case
even more carefully and is
now convinced that there is not suf-
ficient evidence against Hayes to
warrant the withholding of the par
don. His action is voluntary, no
recent petition having been presented
in the matter. In announcing his
decision Governor Hayward gave out
the following statement:
"The case of Hoyt Hayes, con-
victed of murder of his wife, hinged
entirely upon the authorship of the
note found in the room with the dead
woman. The hand that wrote the
note committed the deed. If the
woman did not write the note, it was
q case of murder. If the woman did
write the note, it was suicide. That
is the whole case in fact.
"Acting upon the evidence in the
case produced at the trial and the
further testimony of an acknowledged
handwriting expert, I was convinced
that there were doubts of Hayes
guilt sufficiently strong to justify my
interference with the death sentence
of the court, and l therefore in Octo-
Der, 1904, commuted the sentence to
life imprisonment, expecting to study
the case further and to act properly
at the proper time. I have given the
whole case the most careful and
searching study and am convinced
that the evidence was not and is not
sufficient to justify the withholding
of a pardon.
"The note is the vital point in
the case. The celebrated handwriting
expert, David Carvalho, to whom
1 referred the exhibits, declared un-
equivocally that the note was written
by Lula Hayes. This confirmed the
local experts examined on the stand
at the trial. Since then there has
been nothing to contradict Mr.. Car
valho's conclusion, but on the other
hand Mr.. Osborne, an expert to whom
the writings were referred by Solici-
tor Boggs, has reached the same
opinion and has declared in a letter
to Mr.. Boggs that the note was un-
doubtedly written by the woman.
My own repeated examinations of all
the exhibits has led me to the same
conclusion. Upon this premise the
innocence of Hoyt Hayes must be
admitted.
ain the evidence produced at the
two trials Of the case there was
nothing brought out to show a
motive for the killing of his wife by
Hayes. In murder trial, where the
fact of the killing is admitted or
proved, it is held not necessary to
prove motive, but the fact that Hayes
killed his wife is not proved. Hence
the absence of motive in this case is
a strong factor. 1t is presumed that
if it had been possible to establish
motive the prosecution, ably con-
Quoted as it was, would have devel-
oped that point. On the contrary
there has been nothing brought out
at either trial or since to disprove
that Hoy. Hayes and his wife lived
together most amicably, to which
fact their neighbors and families tes-
titled.
"This case was not referred to the
new pardon board, inasmuch as / had
begun its consideration, and had in
deed acted, before the creation of the
board, and it would not be fair either
to the board or to myself to appear