The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1911-05-12
DISAPPROYES HASTY PETITION.
Judge Memminger Reviews Gaffney
Murder Case-Scenes OF Trage-
dy FiTidly Recalled.

ton now is only, are all the attendant
facts and circumstances then and since
such as to call for the reduction OF
the legal sentence?
MY heart may, ard does, bleed for
this young man, who so early IN life
should have had such serious conse-
uuences follow in the wake OF each
rash act of his that fatal night and
morning"
Thus writes Judge r. Withers
~Memminger, of Charleston, who does
not recommend pardon at this time
sor George Hasty, the noted Cherokee
prisoner, serving a life term for the
killing of Milan Bennett, an actor, at
Gafney on December Is, 19O3.
Governor Considering Papers.
Governor Blease has been consid-
sering the papers in the case, but ne
has not yet reached a conclusion.
judge Memminger, after setting out
that he has given the matter consld-
cradle thought, gives a free express
sion of his views, being deeply I'M
pressed with the appeal for clemency
for George Hasty and says that no
doubt the letter from Editor Ed De-
Camp, of the Gaffney Ledger, voices
the sentiment of the community that
Hasty has suffered enough and goes
into the merits of the petition.
Yet, if It be-" writes Judge Mem
minger, so that one or both OF these
Young women had departed from the
lines of proper and modest conduct
and HasJy was encouraged to believe
that to be true and regulate his con-
duct towards them accordingly, not
reasonably anticipating hostile dem
.onsrration from their male compan-
ions, those are, perhaps, matte
which may be taken into considera-
ton upon an application for execu-
tive clemency.
Says Verdict Proper One.
"This point and that Hasty has
made a good prisoner are all favor
able to the petitioner, but whatever
weight these considerations may hav'.
land without doubt they are Weighty)
and however much I feel inclined to
yield to them, I can not consistently
recommend to your excellency that
Hasty has as yet suffered sufficiently
to eXpiate, ard as an example for, the
terrible tragedy, for the bringing
about OF which he was convicted and
in the cast OF which he was the princi-
pal character.
"The view advanced il the petitions
that his trial was at a time when
public feeling was keen, is, in my
Judgment, of no weight in this case,
because an examination of the record
shows that the verdict was inevitable
from The law and the evidence and a
verdict otherwise would have been
contrary to the law and the evil
dence"
Voicing the sentiment given al the
opening Of this article, Judge Mem
minger then says:
Chain of Wrong Doing
His case has always appealed to
me as more a sequence of wrongs, all
leading up to the fatal enG-murder
at law; but not that premeditated
murder which demands the extreme
penalty and that the jury was right in
recommending to mercy. That he
should have mistaken ths willingness
of the Women-that he should have
chanced to get more liquor that morn
ing-to have the pistol in his pocket
that that mere toy should have pro-
.duced a fatal wound in the body of
each of those men, thickly clad. as
they we're, hurriedly aimed as it was
surely such a chain Of i'll chances all
leading to the death of these men IN
the prime of life, each full of the JOY
of living, no doubt, and to have been
with in a few minutes more away on
their journey of JOY, was never so
fatally linked before!
"And it often comes to ne to think
that George Has:y, who no doubt had
been to their ]lay that night, must
often have visions of the now dead
Davidson in his :ollicking role OF
"Cld Sport Dayie," and Bennett, draw
i:g out the tones Of MS a.ccoI2 Danying
music-all JOY, pleasure, harmony, in
nocent amusement for the multitude
and the fash OF the pistol-the look
of cruel surprise upon their. faces as
they staggered about inthat dingy ho-