Bisbee daily review., 1909-02-20
PATRICK WILL
 RENEW FIGHT
 FOR LIBERTY
Lawyer Serving Life Sentence Will Ask Appellate Court to Release Him From Sing Sing Prison

NEW YORK. Feb. i9.-Tn his cef at sing sing. Lawyer Albert T. Pat
 rick. now serving a commuted sen
 tence of life Imprisonment for tho
 murder of William Marsh Rice. is
 reparing to renew his fight for freedom. Two weeks hence his case
 viii come before the full Appellate division on a writ of habeas corpus. Patrick himself win appear before the co irt and argue in support of his contention that the communication O. ;he death penalty to life Imprisonment by the late Governor Higgins was nor warranted. in that it was a change t,. a punishment not provided by stat ute for the crime for which Patrick
 as convicted, and that the change
 was to his disadvantage, in that il was an imposition of a different and
 greater, punishment Many eminent legal lights do not hesitate to express tie opinion that the noted prisoner Is in sight of freedom.
 Patrick's fight for life Is the most
 remarkable of its kind ever made in this country. His fight for freedom promises to be equally notable, and Yerhaps as successful. No other per
 son was ever confined as long in a
 death house awaiting execution as was Patrick For more than four years and a half he lived within the shad-
 ow of the electric chair. During that time he was present when seventeen ether unfoFtunatee were taken from the.f cells and marched along the Rar rcw passage which separates the condemned cell block from the exc cution chamber. Several times Pat
 rick saw the death watch close in upon him. He heard the state au- tborities as they tested the electric current in the room adjoining the one where his cell was located. His Centence was finally commuted to | life imprisonment by Governor Hig. gins in December, 1906.
 Patrick was convicted of murder in | the first degree by a jury in the New York courts on March 26. 1902. and was sentenced on April to be put to death in the week beginning May of that year. He was tried for the killing of William Marsh Rice. aIl aged Texas millionaire, who died under suspicious cirstumstances oh September 9, 1900. in his apartment In this city Patrick had been Rice's legal adviser for nine months
 before the latter's death, and during
 that time his client was said to have
 made a will which transferred his en-
 tire estate, amounting to $4,400, ,000 1 to the lawyer. By a will drawn in 1896 the greater part of the es- tate was left to found tie Rice Me mOrial institute in Houston. Texas | This will was afterwards upheld, the | Patrick will being pronounced a for | sery. Patrick. according to the testi- nony. was aided by Rice's servant | c. F. Jones, and it was in the inves- legations of the alleged forgeries that i information was brought to light causing the authorities to suspect
 murder The valet was arrested and ] confessed that under Patriek's direc- | tion and urging that be had killed | Rice by making him inhale chloro-
 form as he slept.
 In November, /1so2. stay Of exc cution having been granted, appiica- tion for another trial was made to tHef court Of Appeals granted mo
 lion for an eXteutiOn of time in which
 to bring forward Patrick's appeal
 ia the following March Recorder Con
 denied the motion for a new trial. The court of Appeals heard the argu- mCnis in the Patrick appeal in i March, 1905. On June Q. 1905, tho court by a divided bench. sustained ! the verdict of the trial court. Imme- ! diateiv after Patrick's counsel ap- J peared before the court and asked ! for a stay of execution to give time
 for the preparation of a motion for
 reargument This application was de
 uied on June 14. Patrick's execution
 was set for the week beginning An gust .. 1905. The motion for a rear.
 gJmeDt was then made, and acted as
 Q stay of execution to give time for the preparation. and October 2S. the court of Appeals decided it adversely to Patrick. In spite Of the dramatic appeal 70 the court, Patrick was sen, tcnCed to execution in the week -oi
 January %, 1906. In December his sentence was finally commuted. In
 June last an application for writ Of Eabeas corpus was denied by iJCdge Lacombe in inc United States
 Circuit court. Last month a similar application was made to the Appel
 late division of the Supreme court
 and was granted by Justice William
 r. Gaynor. If Patrick should gair
 his freedom as a result of the hearing
 which is set for March 1, 1t will mean
 the end Of one of the most famous
 cases in the criminal records of thu