Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1907-08-01
Folks Reasons (?)

To the Secretary Of State:
Sir:-Tn re William Spaugh, Jr.,
convicted of murder in the first
degree at the October term, 1906,
of the Supreme Court of the State
of Missouri-on an appeal from
the Circuit Court of Reynolds
county-and was sentenced to be
hanged on January 10, 1907, which
sentence was stayed by executive
order, and the gexecution is now
fixed for Thursday. July 25, 1907.
The extreme penalty of death
should never be administered un-
less the facts clearly justify the
State taking the life of human
being. My experience of four
years as circuit attorney of the
city of st. Louis and two and a
half years as Governor, in both of
which offices I have had to pass
upon a great many cases of this
character, convince me that the
State is rarely warranted in put
ting prisoner to death. Under
our system of law the Governor
has more than a passive duty in
passing on death sentences. No
man can be executed without his
consent. He is made by law virtu-
ally the executioner. 1t is for him
to say whether the prisoner shall
die or live in prison during his
natural life. When a sentence is
committed from death to life i'm
prisonment it is not an interfer-
ence with the due course of the
law, but it is carrying out the law
in accordance with the response
bility imposed upon the chief ex-
ecutive. In every case that has
come before me for my decision as
to whether or not the death pen
atty should be inflicted | have read
the entire record carefully and in
no instance have I permitted a
prisoner to be put to death where
l could find that the public morals
of the commonwealth would be as
we'll subserved by confining thai
prisoner in the penitentiary fol
life.
Where there has been any doub
| have made it a rule to resolve
that doubt in favor of human life
believing that if the State woult
inspire respect for human life i
must itself show regard for it. 1
those under sentence of death wht
have their sentences commuted tt
imprisonment for life really re-
main in prison SO long as they
live, every reasonable objection tt
avoiding the death penalty wher'
tits not absolutely necessary t.
inflict it is answered. Ihave mad
it policy never to release a mai
from prison whose sentence has
been commuted from death, ant
will not do so on holiday pardon
or for any other cause except alb
solute innocense. | hope tha
those who follow me in the ex
ecutive Office will continue this, s.
that sentence for life in the peni
tentiary will really mean what
says. There are cases where tn
State must take human life
order to protect society, but | d
not think this is one of them. Th
policy of this State in reference t
capital punishment is expressed i
the enactment of the recent Gen
eral Assembly, giving the jur
power to fix the punishment, whic
means the abolition of the deaf
penalty except in clear cases
cold blooded, deliberate murder.
This defendant, his brotae
Arthur Spaugh, and his motht
were indicted, jointly, for murd'
in the first degree, for having or
gagged in conspiracy in the xii
ing of Sheriff John w. Polk (
Iron county, a man who was higE
! ly esteemed by all who knew hin
and who was a most popular an
: efficient officer. There had bee
J some difficulty in the town of Iro1
ton between one of the Spaue
brothers and a citizen of that tow
in which the citizen was injured
the sheriff went to the place whe,
the Spaughs lived, some distant
from Ironton, to arrest them; /
went without warrant, believin
as it appears from the testimon.
that felony had been committe,
In endeavoring to make the ARE