The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-11-06

political enemies an opportunity to make me the target of abuse, more cruel, more cowardly and more un- founded than was ever leveled against a public man in Alabama. The charge he made was a basis for false and cowardly innuendoes, ut tered behind my back and by men lacking in every vestige of manly courage. The very repetition of the charges he made can only stamp those who gave them utterance as cowardly CUTS You know full well that Lacy would never have written what he did had he not been safely ensconced behind steel bars.
 Considers It Undeserved
 And now I am asked to forget the attempted wrong and to show my grateful appreciation by joining those who, under the stress or a misguided sympathy, are asking the state to re- lease this man from an unserved sem tence. / What Mr Lacy may have said about me personally is now a matter of supreme indifference, but will not ask for a pardon or a parole which consider wholly undeserved.
 Nor was Mir. Theo Lacy any ordi nary criminal. His was, in my judg- ment. the most inexcusable, as well
 
 crime ever perpetrated against the state by a trusted official Vincent used the states money in a specula- ton and with a confident hope that he would win and replace all that he had abstracted. On the contrary, Lacy, not under the influence of pow erty or want or the stress of debt. coolly. deliberately and defiantle gath cred together all the funds of the convict department, amounting to over s100.000, and suddenly disap- peared, a, fugitive from justice. No mans guilt was ever more complete ly established. He has not made and does not propose to make any resti- tuition of the stolen money which he carefully and deliberately embedded. He cannot plead the crime was com mitted through ignorance. but. on the contrary, lie was well educated and q descendant of one Of the most re- spected and worthy families in the state. He not only basely betrayed the confidence of his friends and the people by whom he had been hon ored, but after the theft was com mitted showed no repentance, and aided by his silence in protecting his guilty accomplices.
 Efforts to Recover Money
 Tn the face of this great crime, as governor of Alabama. l used all pow CT of the state to recover the stolen money and bring the guilty parties to justice. employed to aid the state in the prosecutions that were insti- tuted the firm of Steiner, Crum & Well, Hon. N. V. Evins and Hon. Frank S. White of Birmingham These gentlemen, together with the states solicitor, Hon. Temple Seibels, constituted one of the strongest and most brilliant arrays of counsel ever gathered in any prosecution.
 "As much as l may sympathize with any man sentenced to lon@- term in the penitentiary, l am un~ able to find in this case any excuse on which I could base plea for clemency Having by his silence as- sumed the entire burden of this great crime, I am unable to suggest any reason why he should now be allowed to escape, except that undeserved sympathy, the exercise Of which would make the pardoning power mockery and weaken the administra- tion of the law.
 "As my silence in this case might be misconstrued, I deem 1t my duty to the people of Alabama, whom I faithfully served and whose conf dence gratefully appreciate, to send a copy of this letter to his excel lency, the governor of Alabama. and to the daily press of the state. Very truly yours, EMMET O'NEAL.