The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1913-04-30
brown ON PARDONS
A GOVERNOR SHOULD NOT De.
FEAT THE COURTS
The STATE IS SUPREME

The Governor Of Georgia Urges a
Premium for Respect of Law and
Oredr, Not the Violation Of Statut-
es Enacted for the Protection and
Safety of Society.
Governor Brown, Of Georgia, is
possessed of a clear-cut, definite and
matured ideas with respect TO the un-
restricted and arbitrarily discretion
ary power Of pardoning Of criminals
conferred upon him 0y the Constitu-
ton of the State. aud those ideas
are diametrically and utterly oppos-
ed to the views entertained by
Governor Blease, of South Carolina,
as set forth in Hearst's Sunday
American of last Sunday. Governor
Blease generally is looked upon as
the easiest source Of pardon, parole
or Communication in the South. He
| boasts that it is his ambition to make
his pardon record in South Carolina
the greatest the state ever has
known, insofar as the total number
! of released prisoners is concerned.
| And to make it that, he is willing to
stretch the law in the prisoners fav-
or to its uttermoSt limit.
Governor Brown has no ambition
to set record paralleling Governor
Blease's at any point. To him, the
| rights Of society and the State are
superior to the petitions Of a duly
convicted criminal, and he contracts
the law sternly and jealousy to it's
written limits in considering pleas
for clemency. Here is Governor
Browns ideas and theory Of the par
doning power. They are worth read
ing:
I'm considering the matter of ex-
ecutive clemency, I will say, in the
first place, that those who are in
clined to deeds against the peace Of
society should be made to know that
it is a very serious thing to violate
the laws.
"In the second place, with that ele-
ment undoubtedly the strength OF the
law is the certainty of its enforce
ment.
"Yet, weakening this, there seems
to be growing in the minds Of many
| of the better element of our people
belief that after criminal has been
In he penitentiary for several
years he has been sufficiently pun
ished' and that the executive OF the
State owes it as a kind Of moral duty
to set him free, so that he may re-
establish himself as a man of charac-
| ter.
s'There is one consideration here
which these people overlook. That IS
the fact that if, after a trial, begin
ming with indictment by the Grand
Jury and running through the pro-
ceedings in the trial court and the
appeal to the higher court, violator
of the law has been sentenced to
serve a given number Of years, 1t is a
fair assumptien that the jury knew
its business when it found him guilty
and that the trial judge, with the
case fresh in mind, knew and attend
ed to his business when he fixed a
certain period OF time as the proper
limit Of his punishment.
"Why, then, must the executive OF
ficer, who was not In the court room
and did not hear or see the witnesses
testify, change, say, a ten-year SEN
tence to one Of only two years, or any
other term shorter than ten years!
Why should he use the Office to de-
feat or to supplant the courts or at
| tempt to make Of it a court of cor
rection?
"In clemency hearings it has been
stated to me time and again that the
| State does not need to hold that man
away from his family a longer time
than the period he has already serV-
ed. Narrowing accounts of the nee
essities of the family are brought be-
fore the Prison Commission and the
executive. There is too much truth
| in these stories Of suffering; but
what shall we say Of the suffering OF
the families of those law-abiding cit
izens whom these criminals have shot
down, in very many cases without
warning?
"They (the criminals) have re-
moved forever the power of those
men to provide for their families, and
co-ordinately made it necessary for
the State to withdraw the offenders
from the power to take care of their
i own families. The confinement COM
planned of is not the fault of the
State, but it is a supreme duty which
| the lawless acts Of criminals have
| made necessary. It must in such
cases be made clear to those in the
criminal element that if they incur
penalties those penalties will be en-
forced.
I'm these remarks have referred
| primarily to criminals who have
taken human lives; but the same OBJ
legation rests upon the people of the
the State to obey all the laws, and
the same obligation is upon the off,
GERS Of the State to enforce all the
| laws.
"Of course, no hard and fast rule
can be laid down to govern all cases
| alike. The Constitution places upon
the executive officer the power to
grant pardons in his discretion; but
that discretion he is expected to use
only after the exercise of the great
est care. 1t is true that occasionally
wave of passion, sweeping over
community, influences jury into ex-
tremes. It is true that Judges them