The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1928-07-27
eCherry
" Where with our
roo Little Hatchet
we tell the truth
about many things, sometimes pro-
foundly, sometimes fippantly,
sometimes recklessly.

Alabama has just taken convicts
out of the coal mines, marking a step
forward in labork long battle for
decency and justice.
But injustice in Imprisonment con-
tinues and men are put to death who
have done no crime.
More commonly men are held for
long terms in prison when they have
done no crime.
Fred Smith, at the age of AZ, has
just been released from the state
prison at Jackson, Mich, after six
years in prison for crime of which
he is now found innocent.
Fred Smith was six years ago iden-
tilted as one James c. Wilson. A
Bertillon expert was among those
making the so-called Identification.
But finally it is proven that mistake
was made. Fred Smith energies from
a dungeon, weeps for time-and be-
comes a cog in the Ford plant ma
chine
Consider another sad case, as re-
lated by Franklyn E. Wolfe, the case
of Ben Bess, combining injustice,
stoicism, and bent for philosophy in
meeting the errors of mankind
One day recently the warden of a
South Carolina penitentiary called
he was free.
"How Gomez" asked Ben, blinking
in the unaccustomed light of the
office.
| woman confessed on her deathbed
that she had lied about you. You can
go out today"
"Where am l goin' to-" asked Ben,
bit sumner by the news.
81 don't know You are free to go
where you like That's all | know"
Ben Bess stood trying to think. For
thirteen years he had been accustom-
ed to the thought that his life term
would be served to the end. "Did the
judge say that?"
Assured again, the convict asked
pathetically: "Boss, will you all let
me stay here tonight? | got to think
this over / don't know nobody out
there" Bens' shoulders dropped a
little lower, his head sunk on his
breast as he turned away.
The next day Ben left the "Stout
House" where he had spent thirteen
years of his life convicted of the crime
of attempted criminal assault.
| A dying woman confessed she had
accused him falsely because he had
refused to continue to rent some land
from her.
Ben Bess had narrowly escaped
|lynching. That experience had some
what aged him, especially when he did
not know in the confusion what it
was all about and what the accusa-
ton was. Then he had heard an elo-
lquent and indignant prosecuting at
torney pleading earnestly with the
Jury to hang him. BY this time he
knew what it was about, but he was
linarticulate and bewildered. Some
doubt seems to have fingered in the
minds of the jurors. Some of them
may have known the white lady who
had been the accusing witness.
At the time of the conviction of the
man the newspapers carried headlines
to the effect that "justice was
avenged" Had Bess escaped from
the clutches of his prosecutors these
same newspapers would have carried
headlines to the effect that Justice
had been "thwarted."
But the jury of twelve good mer
and true, wise and firm, a judge sterr
and infiexible and prosecutors all sci
their faces and applied justice &C
cording to the code.
So it came about that Ben Bess die
thirteen-year stretch" in prison
and came out friendless and broken
There is no compensation whatever
The state makes no provision in such
{ cases for the victim Of mistaken ol
} malicious prosecutions.
AS the man left the prison thu
warden seemed to want to get an ex
preston from him, so he said: "Ane
/ SO you were innoient, after all, Benz
eyes, sah," said Ben Bess. :"
Iknowed that all the time"