Mountain advocate. (Barbourville, Ky.) 1904-1935, 1913-11-28
LUST FOR BLOOD
STATES BANE
DARK PICTURE OF KENTUcKVs
CRIMINAL RECORD Is PAINTED
BY PRISON COMMISSIONER.
IMPORTANT DECISION COMING
Court Of Appeals to construe Power
Of Board Of Prison Commission
ers Regarding Parole.

Western Newspaper Union News Service.
Frankfort, Ky.--"The lust for hui
man blood is doing more to retard
Kentucky than all its archaic tax laws.
it's bad roads and its illiteracy put to-
gether," declared Daniel Z. O'Sullivan,
chairman of the State Board of Prison
Commissioners, in a discussion of the
case of John DeMoss now pending be-
fore the court of appeals. IF the
court of appeals should decide that
under the indeterminate sentence and
parole laws every man sent to prison
for manslaughter must automatically
be set free at the end of two years,
the minimum sentence for the crime,
/ am In favor Of change in the law"
DeMoss was convicted of manslaugh-
ter in Campbell county and sent to Ed
dyville for an indeterminate sentence,
the minimum Of which was two years.
After serving two years with a good
prison record and securing employ
ment for six consecutive months i'm
medately following his release from
prison, DeMoss applied for a parole
and was refused. He then brought suit
for a writ of mandamus to compel, the
Board of Prison Commissioners to pa
role him on the ground that having
served the minimum sentence and
complied with all the. conditions pre-
cedent TO obtaining a parole the board
must grant it, The writ was granted
by the Franklin circuit court and the
board appealed. The case is now I'M
der submission before the court of ap-
peals.
The Board of Prison Commissioners
insists that the parole law gives it dis
cretionary power to grant or refuse
parole. but if the court holds otherwise
Chairman O'Sullivan is of the opinion
that the next general assembly should
correct the law.
Continuing. Chairman o'Sullivan
said
Murder is as common as theft.
Every day men are shot down, either
from ambush or in public places;
some as the result of senseless feuds,
others in trivial quarrels and others
still in drunken rows, until the whole
commonwealth is drenched in blood.
The lie passes in some foolish argu-
ment between friends, and immediate
ly pistols are drawn and one or both
are killed. No true Kentuckian can
afford to have his veracity questioned,
If he has to become a murderer to de-
fend his honor. -ss
What is the result? A saturnalia
Of lawlessness, with thousands of
homes despoiled and the prisons filled
with convicted felons Look at the
figures and realize. what a terrible
price the. state. is paying for unfolding
this false standard of courage. There
are now confined in the two prisons
for murder for life 324 men; for man.
slaughter 412 men; for malicious
shooting and cutting, 154 men; a to-
tai of $50 prisoners guilty either OF
seeking or taking the lives of their fell
lowmen. When there is added 70 this
number the hundreds of murderers
who escaped conviction every year,
through legal loopholes and the con-
nivance of weak and corrupt jurors, it
will be seen that Kentucky stands dis
graced before the world.
AT the Houses Of Reform, Green
dale, there are several boys sentenced
for life for murder, one of them only
~ years old.
When the Kentucky penitentiaries
contai1 $50 men with human blood on
their hands and the Kentucky Jail
holds at least 300 or more men await
ing trial on charges of murder or man
slaughter it is time that something
was being done to stay the crimson
tide"