The Kemper herald. (Scooba, Miss.) 1875-1908, 1906-04-19
FOUR YEARS IN PEN
Sentence Given Greene and
Gaynor by Judge Speer.
ATLANTA PRISON NAMED
Fines of $575,694.90 Are Also Assess
ed, Which Defendants Can Easily
Escape Paying-AppeaI viii
BE Taken-End Not Yet.

BE Taken-End Not Yet.
Benjamin Greene and John F. Gay
hor were sentenced by Judge Speer In
the federal court at Savannah Friday
morning to serve four years in the
federal prison at Atlanta, and to pay
each a fine of $575,794.9O, the amount
they are charged with having embel-
zied.
Upon one indictment the sentence
was to two years and upon each of the
other indictments four years, but the
court directed that the sentence might
all be served concurrently, which re-
duced the term to four years. Thus,
with the allowance of three months
off each yea1 during which the behav-
ior of the prisoners may be good, the
sentence reduces to three years.
The fine need not be paid If, on
completing the sentence, the prisoners
take the pauper's oath and make af-
fidavit that they are not possessed of
more than twenty dollars. In lieu of
paying the fine, they may serve thir-
ty days longer.
Counsel for the prisoners announce
that an appeal will be taken. An order
of court grants ten days for the filing
of bill of exceptions.
Judge Speer, in sentencing the pris-
oners, said, in part:
"The most painful judicial duty Is
the imposition of a sentence to penal
servitude. This is peculiarly true when
those convicted are men of fine intel
ligence, men of affairs, men who have
had the opportunities of education, or
who have been trained by the teach
ings of experience. One of the pris-
oners has been distinguished by his
state; has been an important official
of one of the great political parties;
a man of large acquaintance; perhaps,
with multitudes of earnest friends.
The other is a graduate of distinction
of our great military academy at West
Point, and he at one time was a cap
tain in that famous corps of engineers
whose roster bears such names as
Robert E. Lee and George Gordon
Meade, corps whose record was
stainless before the occurrences which
have been developed in evidence here.
81 am told that it has been cynical
ly said that no man who has mil
lion dollars can be convicted of crime
in America. The verdict of this jury
of plain, clear-sighted, honest Amer
icans, has falsified such pessimism. !"
notwithstanding the gravity OF
your offense, it is not deemed necessa-
ry to impose upon you the extreme
penalty of the law by cumulative SEN
tences. Such sentences might aggre
gate seventeen years Imprisonment
at hard labor and s595,749.90 fines.
Il recognize that you have been in
Jail for more than a year, that both
of you are elderly men, both of you
are educatde men, accustomed to a life
Of comparative luxury and to the COM
forts of home My sentence to you,
therefore, Is far more severe that a
much greater sentence, If imposed
upon those who commit offenses which
demonstrate by their savagery and
that they are brutes without discourse
Of reason.
s'In view of your conviction for
smbezzlement, l deem 1t my duty in
obedience to the statute relating TO
that crime to impose on you fine
equivalent to the amount embezzled.
"Your terms of Imprisonment viii
aggregate, as expressed technically in
the sentence, four years in the United
States penitentiary at Atlanta.
II may add, however great your NOR
tification now, your case Is by no
means hopeless. The sanitary condi-
tions and food secured by the humane
management of that great prison both
will be far better than that to which
you are accustomed.
81 trust that you will emerge from
your Imprisonment restored in health
and in strength and that for the rest
of your lives you will recall the words
and cherish its teaching of the psalm
ist, The little that the righteous man
hath is better than the riches of many
wicked"