The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1910-11-15
UNUSUAL REQUEST
rnps PARDON OF NEGRO WHO
\: PLEADED GUILTY.
Gzavacsed OF Attempted Assault on
ssae Wife OF the Man Who Now
Il svgants Him Released.

Although the husband Of the Wo-
man. for, an attempted assault upon
rhom Joe Bowman, colored, OF Or
angeburg County, is serving TWEEN
ty years sentence, signed the petition
Tor the release of the negro and
wrote a personal letter to Governor
Anssl, in behalf Of the negro, bring
Ing down upon. himself condemna.
ton by the presiding judge, the Gov
syror Saturday morning wrote on
the back of the;petition for pardon:
Pardon refused" sst,es
In January. 1907, Joe Bowman
pleaded guilty to an attempted as
.sanlt In the Court of General Ses-
ssiens for. Orangeburg County, and
40 was sentenced to 20 years i'm
prisonment In the State Penitentiary.
"a short while ago a petition was pre-
seated to Governor Ansel, asking that
he pardon Bowman. In the petition
came the following remarkable let
ter from the husband Of the woman,
ON the complaint of whom Bowman
was arrested.
'4Honored Sir: I write you In ref
ierence to application and petition for
pardon of Joe Bowman a young ne
gro from Orangeburg county. I was
the prosecuting witness in that case.
At that time thought he was guilty.
But afterwards I found out that he
was drunk and in all probability did
not have any criminal intent when
he approached the ladies. The facts,
as near as I can coIae at it, are as
follows:
-'.Joe, while at Branchville, be-
came very drunk. While in that con-
dition he came up TO my residence
aud went under my steps and drop
ped to sleep. My wife had been out
visiting. After sleeping awhile the
negro awoke and came out from un-
der the steps. Jus- then my wife
and another lady were returning
.home and nearing thu residence when
the drunken negro approached them.
They bcame frightened and raised
an alarm, going some little distance
from the residence. The negro ran
into a nearby sugar cane patch and
came out again on S, side street witi
a stick just as the ladies' were coming
along that way. They then became
more alarmed. The negro ran off.
II was informed Of what had hap
pened and the crowd Of neighbors
went with me in seErch Of him. We
found him and apprehended him and
took him to court on Monday at
Orangeburg. The nsxt day ho plead
guilty and was sentenced to twenty
years' Imprisonment in the peniten-
siary. Later I found out that the
negro was drunk when he went under
|. the steps and when the ladies be-
came frightened. Since l have had
time to duly. consider the matter l
feel SO .76ed that the said Joe Bow
man had no criminal intent when he
approached the ladies. And believ-
ing that he had been sufficiently pun
ashed, I ask your excellency to par
DON him. I do not know why the
Ban pied guilty, but I doubt wheth-
er he understood what he was doing.
Trusting that you will pardon this
man, I am very respectfully yours,
Judge George W. Gage, who pre-
sided at the trial t.f the case, writes:
SIT is out of the question to wise
Iy and well administer the law for
men like Mr. .i...
;..'By his own statement he misled
the Court and he may now mislead
the Governor.
- Il have nothing to recommend, be-
cause do not know what the truth
is"
The solicitor, P. T. Hildebrand,
makes no recomm endation. Govern
or Ansel refused the pardon, with no
comment thereon. 1t Is unlawful to
print names of victims in assault