Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1922-07-01
MT. VERNON PAPER
| SAYS Sentence JUST
Signal Adds Its Protest Against
Clemency For Mcqueen Who
Killed "Uncle Ike" CoyIe


/ Steve Mcqueen, Rockcastle
youth, sentenced to die in the
electric chair for the murder of
Uncle Ike" CoyIe, near Big Hill,
I seems to have subsidized, follow
ing vigorous protests i'll newspa-
pers where people were familiar
with the crime. The Mt. Vernon
Signal, in its last issue, goes ex-
tenSively into the case and adds
its protest to other papers which
have insisted upon fulillment of
the jury's verdict, as eminently
just and deserving of no mitiga-
ton. What the Signal saws will
be read with interest as Mr..
Coyle was well known in Madi-
son county The Signal said:
! Much ado is being made over
the sentencing Of Stephen Me
Queen to the electric chair at
the May term Of the RocLcastlc
circuit court. McQuecn having
made his escape from the Jail in
| Mt. Vernon before his trial. was
for safe keeping, after couvic-
ton, transferred, along with two
other convicted men, to the jail
i'll Danville, where some Of the
good people have become very
much excited about his case. Sew
erA OF our neighboring papers
have taken up the cudgcls in de-
! Tense Of Rockcastle county's
J method Of melting out Justice to
its criminals, for which we thanL,
them. There seems to be an inn
preston i'll Danvillc that the
young man may have been the
victim Of the ''fcud spirit" We
would say in regard to this that
while we have had mere than
our share of homicides in the
past Is years, not one Of them
could by any stretch OF magma
ton be classed as the result of
any feud. The chief factor IN all
the cases of homicide that have
occurred III Our county for the
past decade. is whisky. and we
| feel that with the moonshiner
and bootlegger removed, the
number of homicidcs would soon
be nil. Young Mcqueen from
! facts brought out in the trial was
engaged in making and selling
moonshine whisky and the chief
motive for the killing Of an old.
crippled and defenseless man was
to stop him from reporting that
fact to the authorities, and il
the. confession which Mcqueen
and his partner in crime made.
they said eve were drinking and
! got drunk" and then went and
called the old man to his door
and shot him down in cold blood.
Then it is urged that bcause Of
| the boys lack Of education the
/ sentence should be committed to
life Imprisonment. We admit the
lack of education IS serious
drawback, but we also can cite
any number of young men who
are among our most substantial
and law abiding citizens, who we
doubt have as much education as
! young Mcqueen, and we know
there are hundreds and hundreds
of boys working their way thru
Berea College, that excellent in
stitution of learning which is not
more than eight or ten miles
from young McQueen's home,
who have had no better oppor-
tunity than did he. but they made
their opportunities and are max
ing men of themselves instead Of
moonshiniug, bootlegging and
numbering and then whining be-
cause of their lack Of chance. IF
Mr.. Mcqueen were the only one
to be considered. we would un-
hesitatingly recommend that the
death sentence be commuted to
life Imprisonment, in the hope
that he might reform, but we all
know that in nine cases out Of
ten life imprisonment means
something like eight years in the
penitentiary, then the criminal is
paroled (if he is not pardoned be-
fore that and turned loose to
permit other crimes, and then we
are sadly in need Of something
that will act as deterrent on
the young pistol toter of this
county who gets filled up on
moonshine and kills his fellow
man. The people Of our county
realize this, hence the juries who
do their duty; but it is very dis
cotraging to these men who lay
aside ali sentimeilt in regard to
infictihg the death penalty and
we know it must be hard thing
to do and do their duty, to have
their work undone BY, sentiments
alists who do not stop to think
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