Evening star., 1943-07-02
Stephan Now Looks
To Action After War.
To Restore Freedom

by presidential clemency seven
hours before he was to die on the
gallows for treason, Max Ste
phan, the German-born Detroit
restaurant keeper, who had
boasted that he would never
hang, looked forward to some
future communication that would
restore his freedom.
President Roosevelt intervened In
the case late yesterday as the gal
lows was being erected to take the
life Of Stephan for aiding a Nazi
flyer, 1t. Peter Krug, who had
escaped from a Canadian prison
camp.
Mr.. Roosevelt said he believed the
death penalty. TOO severe" and de-
creed life imprisonment for the one
time German army sergeant. The
President, in the statement an
nouncing his action, expressed the
hope that none of his successors
would interfere with that sentence
and James Z. McCabe. one OF
Stephan's attorneys. said he ex-
pected no further plea for clemency
would be made while the Nation Is
at war. AfterwArd, he said. 1t
would be a different story. Krug
was recaptured.
Credit Given Murphy and Stone.
Attorney Nicholas salowich. chief
defense counsel. gave much OF the
credit for the communication to Frank
Murphy, associate justice Of the su-
preme Court, and to Chief Justice
Harlan Fiske Stone.
THE Chief Justice assured us in
Washington that We should not give
up-that this was no heinous crime"
Mr.. Salowich said
Justice Murphy was Of ines
timable aid"
Long an opponent of capital pun
ishment. Justice Murphy as Gov
ernor of Michigan in 1888 sought
commutation of the death sentence
imposed on Tony Chebatoris, bank
robber and murderer hanged at the
Milan institution, or removal of the
hanging to some other State.
District Attorney John c. Lehr.
who prosecuted the Stephan case
without making . specific request
for the death penalty. said he be-
lieved the Communication would "ac-
complish substantial justice" He
commented that Congress had IAN
ticipated cases Of treason in which
the death penalty should not be
imposed"
Gallows Ordered Stored.
The gallows which had been
brought to the Federal correctional
institution here in sections, was
ordered stored by the Justice De-
partment.
"Oh. thank God" Stephan Shrek
ed at 5:55 pm. yesterday as Warden
c. j. Shuttleworth Of the correc-
tional institution and Attorney Salo-
wich brought him the news that the
President had been merciful.
He fell all over us. kissing and
crying and laughing Mr.. Salowich
said.
If you can imagine man excited.
beyond excitement. that was Max.
He was delirious with gratitude"
That was an emotionally different
Max Stephan to the pudgy restaura-
teur who sullenly stood in court as
a Federal court returned - verdict
Of guilty n, his trial one year aga.
today different Max Stephan to
the man who then told his jailers,
"A victorious Germany will not leave
Stephan in Jail" and Il will never
be hanged. ''' Germany will
win"
Parallel to Manslaughter.
The White House statement said
President Roosevelt considered Ste
phan's crime of harboring and as
sisting an escaped German prisoner
OF war was less serious than the
crime for which six Nazi sabateurs
paid with their lives in Washing
ton. while one companion was SEN
fenced to life in prison and the
other to 80 years at hard labor.
The President said the landing of
the eight civilian-clad saboteurs on
the United States shores from a Ger
man submarine ranked tn the range
of degrees Of such offenses as first
degree murder ranked with lesser
degrees Of homicide. Stephan's
crime, he said. bore something OF
a parallel to murder in the second
degree or manslaughter in the first
degree"
There IS no question in the Presi-
dents mind that Stephan was, and
probably is, pro-German or pro-
Nazi,' the White House said.
In Detroit, Federal Judge Arthur
j. Tuttle rad nothing to say about
the Presidents assertion that the
death sentence he thrice had pro-
nounced on Stephan was too severe
and did not sufficiently take into
account the statute which provides
for the different qualities of treason. :"
Seeking Stephan's life as the first
person in the Nations history to be
executed In a Federal prosecution for
treason. the prosecution had called
him a dangerous foe of our Govern
ment whose American restaurant
was Bund headquarters.
1t made much of the fact that
Krug. captured member of a German
bomber crew knew where to 60 for
haven after he had escaped from 4
detention camp at Bowmanville,