The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1907-01-13

citement over the assassination of J.
H. Bowman. who was marshal OF the
town, says the Tallahassee Sun.
Bowman was at his home and it is
said was engaged in fitting caps on
his two young sons. He was shot
through a screened window and died
almost instantly.
To be exact it will have been four
years ago the 18th of the present
month. In March following Isaiah E.
Cooper was convicted of the crime
on circumstantial evidence. The cen
viction of Cooper was followed by a
series of legal eVolutions which fol-
low every conviction, but without
avail, except that there was a rein
vestigation of the murder by the grand
jury the spring term of the year just
closed and several sittings of the
Board of Pardons, which refused to
interfere.
In many respects the Cooper case
is without parallel.
The mans trial followed swiftly
upon the crime and his conviction
was accomplished. Governor Jen-
nings issued a warrant for his death,
and revoked sit Governor Broward
has twice Issued the death warrant
and has both times revoked it. The
case remains today, so far as the pub
lie is informed, in the same status
that it held Immediately after Cooper
was convicted. Yet during that time
the indefatigable energy of the con-
victed mans attorney, J. w. Brady,
has been turning heaven and earth
for rev evfdence-for evidence which
would be positive sufficient to con-
vict anOther-or others.
Never perhaps have the people of
a community or section been so
much aroused over the failure of the
laws execution, and this has afforded
a remarkable aspect to the case
While the evidence was entirely CIR
cumstantial, yet the jury conyictei
and a reinvestigarion by the grand
jury failed to discover enough, if any,
evidence to overcome the presumption
of guilty; there sens to be in the
minds of the people who demand the
execution of Cooper, no doubt that he
was the murderer; the Board of Par
dons has refused to interfere, and yet
there has been a doubt of sufficient
gravity in the minds of two governors
to cause them to peremptorily hold
up the death sentence.
In this past year we have been wit
nesses of Investigations wherein the
dishonesty of corporations was the
object probing, and we have read
realms of literature turned out by the
muck rakers who have had a nearer
seat during the progress of the inveS-
LEGATIONS than we had. These same
have also had a more intimate &C
quaintance with the men who were
prominent with the corporations that
have been placed on the pan in the
interest of the honest dealing
And among the valuable lessons that
we have learned from these investi-
cations, if we have prof1ted by them at
all, is this: That a number of hon
est men may be guilty Of dishonest
transactions when acting as corpor-
ate or collective body. In brief John
Smith may be guilty of accepting re-
bates as president of company
whereas he would not think of such
thing as an individual with a sense
of having transgresSed the laws of
rigid TeCtitude.
There is in the Cooper case an en-
actment of the same principle with
regard to the execution of the
man who has been convicted of the
murder of the town marshal Of Pun
ia GOrda. The jury convicted upon
evidence which could not be reason
ably conclusive The Board of Par
dons refuses to interfere with the con-
- NI@ h. n
cIamOrs for the death of the man held
to account for Bowman's death
When Governor Jennings revoked
the first death warrant the people
hanged him in efigy.
On the last Thanksgiving Day a
minister turned loose diatTibe
against the present governc- Cor not
permitting the law to take It's course.
This is the clamor of the people.
This is the demand of the crowd, but
it does not represent the introspec
tive decision of the individual. The
action of Governor Jennings and that
Of Governor Broward does demon
strate that conscientious thought and
reasonable doubt which even accom-
panies the presumption of guilt
On file in the governors office is a
mass of testimony, correspondence
and documentary evidence in the
Cooper case. At the bottom of the
package is a plain card photograph
Of man and his family. The pho
tOgraph was taken in the DeSoto
county Jail. The man is Isaiah E.
Cooper, his wife and five children.
Cooper has a fOrbidding face
The testimony of George Alderman,
the man at whose home he boarded in
Punta Gorda showed Cooper to be a
queer person He drank frequently,
and drink makes queer people. But
Alderman said that Cooper was queer
even when he was not drinking When
examined as 10 the appearance of
Cooper directly after the shooting AL
1erman said He was a strange man
He was man that never talked much,
and of course he was a restless man.
He would go TO bed at night, and may
be he would get up again and parIey
around. He seemed to be restless
somehow l don't know how, hardly"
It was upon such testimony as this
hat Cooper was convicted Upon
MS nervousness and his excitement
after the murder Yet there was evil
ience of the same character concern
ng others Speaking of another one
Of his boarders the same Alderman
-aid ..Ia hot mn hau