New-York tribune., 1918-05-12
HOW MJJR)ERT3RS AND REFORMEI2S SAVED STIELOW
Farmer Sentenced Five
Times Before Pardoned

ular form and sent word back n -.
death house that all was we'll. Tb.,h.
turned to Mrs. Boissevain and III. -.
of US and, addressing his remarks ..
her, said:
i've seen many executions here hr+
never felt quite right about this c..e
I, has worried me, but my wife alwa,.
said God would save this man If b. :.
innocent. I believe she is right.s
The rest of Saturday the lawvsr.
who by this time had been Joined bv
James W. Osborne, brought in by Mi.h.
Appelbaum, and Huntington w. Me-
chant, representing Warden osbon.
spent IN preparing their argument for
justice Guy, who received them in II.
nome late in the afternoon. The arcn.
ment necessarily was brief. Again -.
court gave the prisoner the benaa. -
tne doubt and issued one order rs-
stralning Warden Osborne or his a1ent,
from executing Stielow and anothar
returnable August %, for the sts+a :.
show cause why Stielow snouid rot
nave the new trial so often refused
Thought Reprieve
Was Fine
Ine validity of the stay at the TINA
was very questionable, but Mr.. Mer.
cnant advised Warden Osborne that h.
must take his law from the court and
once more Stieiow was told he had an
other chance to live.
ment. o"'S soin-
Meantime the hunt for the myste-
ro Tious JunKman was on up in Orleans
Sounty. 10 this Nelson Green. the
Drother-in-law of Stielow. contrihutaJ
by informing the lawyers that a msu
in Auburn Prison named O'Connel, us.
the man he saw with the unknown ON
the day before the murder. O'Conneil
was serving a sentence for a robbery
not unlike that in which Phelps and his
housekeeper were killed. ),
Meantime. also, funds were running
very low. There had long since been
no money to meet O'Grady's charges
and expenses and OFarrell was financ-
ing himself and Mrs. Humiston. What
little money did come in went to some
of the lawyers.
Early in August they found the ped
Ter TO be Erwin King, who, arrested
and locked up in Little Valley on
August 1, 1915, promptly confessed that
he killed Phelps and Mrs. Wolcott, nam
ing O'Connell as his accomplice. This
seemed to settle the case at once, and
had the confession stood there is little
doubt but that it would, but King re-
pudlated it before the motion for a
new trial could be argued before Jus
tice Rodenbach in Buffalo or August
Confession
of No Value
Legally the confession was of no
value, once it was repudiated. and
again relief was refused, Justice
Rodenbach, who had been a leader in
the movement to simplify the crimi-
nal law, holding that as the law stood
nothing short Of Intervention hy the
Governor could save Stielow's life. w
AS the record then stood Stielow wss
IN the position of man of whose guilt
there was grave, almost overwhelming
doubt. 1t was conceded that had the
trial court known then of the seriou.
charges which were later made in tn,
new trial applications as to the manne
IN which the alleged confession wa:
obtained, an acquittal in all probable
ity would have resulted. But as this
was all known to Stielow at the time
of the trial, it was not in the legal
sense newly discovered evidence. The
fact that he had lacked sense enough
to tell his counsel about it did not
affect the result.
Neither was the result affected by
the fact that at the time of lis arrest
he had been held four days Without ar
raignment or the privilege of seeing
counsel.
From the courts there was apparent
ly no relief to be had, but the lawyers,
the detectives and Miller, with others
III private life. worked out as best they
could, hopeful that something would
turn up to reward their efforts with
success through compelling the courts
to act. Financially there was almost
as little to work on as there was in
law, OFarrell having expended close
to $4,000 of his own money and
O'Grady to large extent having
financed himself.
One way or another $4,000, tenth
of which available at his trial would
perhaps have saved him, had been spent
apparently in vain.
Sentenced
To Death Again
The case now went to the Court
of Appeals for second time, this time
for the resentencing of Stielow. That
| bOdV fixed December II as tho date.