Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1921-05-27
AWAITING THE
ELECTRIC CHAIR

A boy of 81 sat In the death cell,
awaiting execution for murder, con.
victed on circumstantis1 evidence.
A former hoodlum and member Of
gang, when caught in the near vi.
cinity of the crime. he was the log
ical suspect, and failing funds, lacking
friends and money, together with false
evidence, sent him to prison to await
the electric chair.
One day section of a women's
magazine came into his hands. There
was a department devoted to the
needs and problems of the men in the
service and their families. The idea
OF the personal service suggested all
through it, appealed strongly to him
and he wrote to the woman editor,
asking, not for help or sympathy, but
for reading matter with which to while
away the six remaining weeks of life!
He told her nothing of his trouble,
but only Of his one good friend who
had visited him and was doing every.
thing possible in his behalf
Being real woman with boys Of
her own, she sent bundle of books
and magazines and asked to have his
story, Furthermore she wrote to the
warden of the prison and to the boys
Salvation Army Friend. From these
two men came the story Of the hasty
trial, It's details and conviction. The
two men who had tried to help the
boy, the lawyer who had volunteered
to defend him had died before the
trial was completed, and his colleague
sent away to Europe on a special gov.
eminent mission, and was not on hand
to put forth the effort for a new trial.
Before any progress toward a new
trial could be made the evidence re.
lating to the case had to be printed,
The cost Of this was SIS, and nowhere
had this boy and friends to produce
such a sum. A bed-ridden mother, a
widowed sister with two small chill.
dren could hardly keep themselves, let
alone help him.
When the Editor Woman received
this letter from the Salvation Army
men, she promptly sent the SIS from
her own slender resources, with the
instruction to get evidence quickly,
They began to struggle to get some
one of sufficient Importance to move
legal wheels to reopen the case. When
all appeals to officials, the ministry
and other agencies failed, attended by
the time-worn phrase, Let the law
take its course" this determined
woman resolved to appeal to another
woman. A telegram was sent to the
wife Of the editor of one of the great
est cosmopolitan newspapers in the
Boys Home city with the plea that
the case be reopened, to establish the
possible innocence of boy charged
with murder
This brought results-for the news
paper took up the case, reprinted all
of the evidence, brought to light sew
eral points in the boys favor over
looked before. The case was reopened
and in very few days on the strength
Of the new evidence thus developed,
the boy was released and the identity
Of the real murderer was discovered.
Thus through the patient. kindly Wis
itation OF the Salvation Army Prison
Worker, who had exhausted every re-
source within his power to get interest
aroused in a case which he believed
deserving Of investigation, machinery
was set in motion which gave back to
society youth of 21 whose two years
of confinement under the death
shadow had made Of him a serious,
Christian citizen, and prevented a mis-.
carriage OF Justice.