The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1914-12-03
PUT OFF STRIPES IMPOSED.
Many Convicts Leave the County
Chaingangs.

OF the 101 prisoners to whom the
governor granted executive clemen-
cy Wednesday, six we're confined in
the State penitentiary, one In the
Lexington reformatory and one on
the Reid State farm. The remainder
OF the convicts released were work
ing on the chaingangs of the coun-
ties in which they were tried for their
crimes. D. J. Griffith. superintend-
ent of the penitentiary. said yester-
day that there were now between
$50 and 100 prisoners left in the
penitentiary and on the State farms.
Other State prisoners are working
on chaingangs in various counties
and are in the reformatories.
The paroles and pardons were
mailed from the governors office
Wednesday night. 1t is presumed
that all of them reached the proper
authorities in time for the favored
convicts to be liberated on Thanks
giving day.
Since assuming Office in 1911, the
governor has exercised executive
clemency in 1,430 cases. A hundred
or two of these were Implications,
prisoners having been paroled or
their sentences commuted and then
pardoned. 1t is conservatively es-
timated that the governor has re!eas-
ed 1900 convicts serving sentences
since he was elected.
The six prisoners paroled from the
penltentiary yesterday were: William
Clark, alias Rabbit" Charleston;
Lizzie DeLoach, Barnwell; Claude
Blessen. Abbeville; Alexander Cham
bliss, alias Alexander Chalmers, Ma
rion; John T. Crump, Dillon, and
Harry Dean, Spartanburug. General
Washington, Abbeville, was released
from the Reid State farm and Daniel
Sheppard, Beaufort, from the reform
atory. All of them were given suit
of clothes and railroad fare each to
their homes. the expenses being
borne by the penitentiary.
There was a slight ''miscue" in
the paroling of w. T. Jones, of Union,
convicted of murder with recommen-
dation to mercy and sentenced to
life Imprisonment. Jones has been
in the Union county chaingang for
several months, the county paying
the penitentiary per diem for his
services. Wednesday night the gov
ernor mailed Jones parole to one
of the prisoners friends in Union.
Jones, however, could not be re-
leased until the penitentiary authori-
ties were notified that he had been
paroled, as he was still under their
control. The matter was straighten-
ed out by a duplicate of the parole
granted Jones being sent to the pen
itentiary yesterday.
George Nichols, the circus en-
ploy convicted of the murder Of
young Paul Williams, of Columbia,
in 1910. was at the Lexington coun-
ty chaingang under similar condi-
tions to those under which w. T.
Jones was on the Union county chain
gang.
John E. Hough, of Kershaw, con-
victed of murder and sentenced to be
hanged, whose sentence was COM
muted to life Imprisonment in 1913,
is confined in the State penitentiary,
where, under the further commuta-
tion of his sentence to five. years
Wednesday, he has little over three
years to serve.
A summary of the number Of pris-
oners released from the chaingangs
in each county yesterday under pa
role follows:
Abbeville, 2; Aiken, 2; Anderson,
10; Bamberg, l; Barnwell, 2; Beau
fort, |; Berkeley, 2; Charleston, 3;
Cherokee, Z; Chesterfield, 1 Claren-
don, l: Colleton, l; Darlington, l;
Dorchester, 3; Edgeheld, l; Fair
field, 2; Florence. /; Georgetown, l;
Greenville, Z; Horny, 2; Kershaw, 8;
Laurens, 2; Lexington, 4; Lee, 2;
Marlboro, 4; Newberry, 8; Oconee 4;
Orangeburg, L; Pickens, 5; Richland,
s.; Spartanburg, 2; Sumter, 2;
Union, /; Williamsburg, 2; York, l.
The State.