New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-08-30
A Shadow orr Justice

Governor Edward Irving Edwards
of New Jersey the executive COM
mittee Of the Citizens Union of that
state says concerning his refusal
to intervene in the case of George
H. Brandon, who on Tuesday
August %, was electrocuted at
Trenton:
"He (Brandon) was convicted on
the flimsiest evidence. His original
lawyer has already been disbarred for
improperly trying the case The eff
forts Of Mr.. Goldenhorn, who sue.
ceeded him, to put his evidence be.
fore the courts have been frustrated
by the extraordinary New Jersey
statute prohibiting the submission OF
evidence, no matter how vital, un-
less 1t Is presented within six months
after conviction.
Under the peculiar technicalities
OF the New Jersey statutes and IN
der the power vested in you as its
Chief Executive, you alone possessed
the power to stay this horrible pro-
cedure. You failed to do so. You
by your acts, or your failure to act
in this particular case, have left an
indelible stain upon the reputation
of the State of New Jersey"
Putting aside for the moment a
discussion Of the statute which
barred Brandon's counsel from pre-
senting the alleged new evidence
discovered on the part of the de-
Tense, what, let it be asked, is the
justification for the serious accu-
sation made against Governor Ed
wards? To answer that a brief
summary of the salient facts of the
case, which seemingly is destined to
stand out in the history of criminal
jurisprudence, becomes necessary.
At 1:15 o'clock of the moonlit
morning of August 22, 1918, Ar
thur Kupfer, young paymaster,
and Edith Janney, a nineteen-year-
old acquaintance, both residents of
Perth Amboy, left an inn on the
outskirts of Railway to go home in
Kupfer's automobile. Their visit to
the inn had been an innocent and
friendly one. The proprietors of
the place knew both Miss Janney
and her family.
At 2:07 o'clock, or fifty-two
minutes afterward, the Rev. Frank
II. Moore, superintendent of the
State Reformatory at Railway, was
awakened by the sound of shooting.
Leaping from bed and without
stopping to put on his glasses, he
looked out on the road, which
passes under his window.
In the moonlight, according to
statements made little while later,
Moore saw an automobile stopped
and a man carrying another toward
ditch. Upon depositing his bur-
den at the roadside this man re-
turned to the car and it was driven
off at high speed by a third man,
who had remained at the wheel.
The man left in the ditch was
Arthur Kupfer. Within an hour or
thereabouts he died from a bullet
wound in the heart. At dawn the
body of Miss Janney was found
beside road in the village of Lin
den. She had been shot through
the head
Thereafter and for upward Of
twenty months the double murder
dehed a solution of the mystery
which inclosed it. One day in June,
1920, John Lamble, alias George H.
Brandon, an inmate of the New
York State Prison at Auburn, under
sentence for burglary, wrote to the
authorities of Union County, New
Jersey, offering to disclose the iden-
tlty Of the murderer of Arthur
kupfer and Edith Janney in con-
slderation Of his release from
Auburn and his placement in a lob.
AS the result Of negotiations car
ried on by the Union County Pros
ecutor, Brandon accused Charles
Pcchaud, fellow convict. He
said Pechaud had confessed to
him. In turn Pechaud, while ad-
hitting companionship with Bran
don on the night of the murder
and Of their meeting Kupfer and
Miss Jannoy on the road and ask
ing Kupfer to give them a lift, ac-
cused Brandon Of numbering the
young couple for the purpose of
robbery.
Upon the trial of the pair in o.
tober last Brandon pleaded not
guilty, and Pechaud, turning states
evidence, pleaded non cult conten-
dere q will not dispute).
DR.. Moore, who had never seen
Brandon before the night Of the
murder, and t1en without classes