The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1911-05-18
D|SAPPROvES PETITION
JUDGE MEMMINGER REVIEWS GAFFNEY
MURDER CASE
MAN WHO SLEW TWO ACTORS
Scenes of Terrible Tragedy and At
tendant Pathetic Circumstances
Vividly Recalled.

the Verdlct was right verdict and
t'e sentence following therefrom
being fixed by law at life imprison-
ment, the question now is only, are
all the attendant facts and circum-
stances then and since such as to
call for reduction of the legal SEN
tence?
My heart may, and does bleed
for this young man, who so early
in life should have had such seri-
Gus consequences follow in the wake
of each rash act of his that fa-
tai night and morning
Thus writes Judge h. Withers
Memminger, of Charleston, who
does not recommend pardon at
this time for George Hasty, the
noted Cherokee prisoner, serving
life term for the killing of Milan
Bennett, an actor. at Gaffney on
December, Is, 1905.
Governor Considering Papers.
Governor Blease has been consid-
ering the papers in the case. but he
has not yet reached a conclusion.
Judge Memminger, after setting
out that he has given the matter
considerable thought, gives a free
expression of his views, being deep
ly impressed with the appeal for
clemency for George Hasty and
says that no doubt the letter from
Editor Ed DeCamp, of the Gaffney
Leder, 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
Memminger, 80 the cne or both
of these young women had depart
ed from the lines of proper and
modest conduct and Hasty was en-
couraged to believe that to be true
and regulated his conduct towards
them accordingly, not reasonably
anticipating hostile demonstration
from their male companions, those
are, perhaps, matters which may be
taken into consideration upon an
application for NlGxecutive 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
have )and without doubt they are
weighty( and however much l feel
inclined to yield 10 them, | cannot
consistently recommend to your eX.
cellency that Hasty has as yet suf
Tered sufficiently to expiate, and as
an example for the terrible trage-
dy, for the bringing about of which
he was convicted and in the cast of
which he was the principal charac-
ter.
THE view advanced in the petit
tions that this trial was at a time
when public feeling was keen, is.
in my judgment, of no weight in
the case, because an examination of
the record shows that the verdict
was inevitable from the law and
the evidence and a verdict other
wise would have been contrary to
the law and the evidence"
Voicing the sentiment given at
the opening of this article Judge
Memminger then says:
Chain of Wrong-DOing.
His case has always appeared to
me as more a seQuance of wrongs
all leading up to the fatal end
murder at law; but not the pre-
meditated murder which demands
the extreme penalty and that the
jury was right in recommending to
mercy. That he should have mis-
taken the willingness of the wo-
men-that he should have chanced
to get more liquor that morning
TO have the pistol in his pocket
that that mere toy should have pro-
6uced a fatal wound in the body
OF each of those men thickly clad
as they were, hurriedly aimed as it
was-surely such a chain of i'll
chances all leauing 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 me
to think of George Hasty, who no
doubt, had been to their play that
night, must often have visions of
the now dead Davidson in his roll
licking role of old Sport Davie,
and Bennett, drawing out the tones
of his accompanying music-all Joy,