The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1911-08-04
.CRUCE COMMUTES
NEGRO'S SENTENCE
Governor Assumes All Responsibility
And Explains Action in Letter
Written to Sheriff.

Oklahoma City, July Ex-Governor
Lee Cruce, in letter issued to Sheriff
Jack Spain after committing the death
sentence of John Henry Prather, negro
l1S, confessed slayer of w. II. Archie,
to life Imprisonment, said:
Nothing has occurred since | have
been governor of this state that has
given me so much concern and worry
as to what should be done by me as
the matter of the execution of John
Henry Prather, who was sentenced to
be hanged yesterday.
"He is absolutely friendless and
alone; one negro woman has appealed
to me for clemency in his behalf, and
have received a letter from one
prominent white citizen Of this state
This is the sum total of the interest
taken in his behalf; SO that what | do
in this matter is done solely upon my
own responsibility, and in answer to
the demands of my conscience.
This negro has pleaded guilty to
an atrocious crime; that the murder
he committed was unprovoked and
inexcusable will not be denied; he
entered his plea of guilty and threw
himself upon the mercy OF the court;
the death sentence was imposed, be-
ing the highest penalty that can be
paid for crime.
oklahoma City has been in exist
ence for more than twenty-one years;
during that time there have been
many, many crimes that were as
|atrocious as the one committed. by this
negro, and up to this time only one
person has paid the penalty for his of
fense with the sacrifice of his life, and
that was a negro Many white men
have been guilty of an equally grave
offense. and have been permitted to
go with life sentence in the peni-
Itentiary, or sentence of less dura-
tion.
'It occurs to me that in the exercise
of clemency it is the duty of every
official to take into consideration all
the circumstances surrounding each
individual case, and if mercy is to be
shown to any one it should be shown
to the weak rather than to the strong.
Had this offense been committed by a
white boy eighteen years of age, I
would have received thousands and
thousands of letters petitioning me for
clemency; as it is, the offense was
committed by a negro boy without
friends and without parents, who has
had no fair opportunity to make a
man of himself by any training that
he might have received; a member
of an inferior and despised rase, and
now as the hour of doom approaches,
there is not a voice raised in his be-
half.
Il believe that every end of justice
will have been met by confning this
boy to Imprisonment for life, and I
so decree. I am committing his SEN
tence to life Imprisonment In doing
so, realize that l will call down upon
my head the indignation and criticism
Of tens of thousands of the best citi-
zens of this state, but be that as it
may, I am doing what my conscience
tells me should be done, and I had
rather live feeling that had done this
boy and his race no wrong than to
have the commendation and applause
of every citizen of this universe"
When the commutation was receiv-
ed, Prather stood. dressed ready for
burial, waiting to walk on the scaffold,
his coffin waiting in an undertaker's
not far away.