The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-03-29

case ior convincing the evidence. or per- feet the chain of proof. it is useless to expect . verdict of murder in the first degree against q woman.
 In the fifteen years since the electric chair was substituted for the hang mans moose in the State of New York only one woman has died at the hands of the law. Yet in that period nearly three score have been tried for mur- der and in . number of the eases the facts Of the killing were admitted. ,. The single exception-prior to the case of Mrs. Farmer-was Mrs. Mar .tha Place, of Brooklyn. who killed 4er i7-year-oid stepdaughter. Ida, in brutal manner. and later, the same day, tried to- butcher her husband with an axe.
 After being out only a short time che fury brought in d verdict of guilty of murder in the first degrees and on March 21, 18s9--just ten years ago this week, by a peculiar coincidcnce-the wretched woman was put to death in the electric chair at Sing Sing.
 Az In other cases where women had been convicted and sentenced to death. powerful movements by tender-hearted people were engineered to save Mrs. Place from the death chair. Theodore Roosevelt was then Governor Of the State, and he let 1t be known with characteristic emphasis that no inter- ference with the action of the court need be expected from him.
 Prior to the execution of Mrs. Place there had been no legal killing Of woman in New York since 1887. when on February 2s of that year. Mrs Rox- alaha Druse was hanged in Herkimer County for killing her husband. She was the last woman to die on the seaf- fold in New York State,
 The crime of Mrs. Farmer. who Is the second woman to go to the elec- tric chair. was a most fendtsh one. The scene of the crime was in Water town. N. r.. and the date was April 23 of last year. Her victim, Mrs. Sarah Brennan, who was 55 years old. was her neighbor and intimate friend. and the motive was to gain possession Of the Brennan home, deeds of which Mrs. Farmer had forged several months pre- viously.
 Mrs. Farmr had the aid of her hus- band. James D. Farmer. in the mur- der pIot. Four days after Mrs. Bren- nan had disappeared a search reveal ed her badly mutilated body stuffed in a trunk in her own home. of which the Farmers had just taken posses. sion. Farmer and his wifep~were at once arrested and were jointly indicted for murder in the first degree. They were tried separately, however, ana both were convicted. An appeal was taken to the Court of Appeals In Mrs. Farmers case. The conviction was unanimously confirmed and sentence of death was ordered to be executed dur ing the week of March 2s.
 An appeal was made to Governor Hughes for clemencS on the ground that Mrs. Farmer was insane when she committed the crime. The Cover nor. however, declined to interfere with the sentence of the court.
 Tn denying the application for sx- ecutive ciemency, Governor Hughes stated: Tn this case, as In other cap ital cases, there are those who ask for executive interference because they are oppos5d to capital punishinent But l the lRw of the State Is that murder n the first degree Is punishable by death; However important to the interests oi Justice may be the exercise of pardon ing power in exceptional cases. the ex- ecutive has no right to use this power for the purpose of effecting a practical repeal of the law.
 "The law of the State regarding murder makes no distinction between the sexes, and a woman who Is found guilty of this crime Is subject to the same penalty as a man. The law