Show THE YL VE TER CAS11 GovernorWests Refusal of Ex S traditionSustained CALIFORNIA LAW VOID A DISCUSS OX OP THE INTERESTING ISSUE RAISED The Position Taken b y tIle Governor amcl United States Attorney Judd Was Proper Hovr Their Decision Was Received In the Golden State 5 Enw Must lie Amended The acton of Governor West in rIng r-ing extradition papers for Sylvester the California escape has raised several very important questions in the Golden State and created much interest in the case That refusal will be the direct cause of the amending of the state parole law Fridays issue of the San Francisco Ex aminerthus discourses on the matter All that a parole prisoner has to do to obtain his complete liberty is to slip across the state line Once over the border bor-der he cannot be extradited True the act of March 2 193 solemnly declares that i any prisoner so paroled shall leave the state without permission from said board he shall be held as an escaped es-caped prisoner and arrested as such But the other states and territories refuse re-fuse to acknowledge the jurisdiction in I the premises and as a broken promise is no crime the bringing back of the fugitives fu-gitives is out of the question j An instance In point has just occurred t which has attracted less attention than its importance deserves Only brief mention I men-tion has been made of the arrest of C C I Sylvester a paroled San Quentin convict I I at Ogden and the refusal of the governor gover-nor ot Utah to surrender him to the California fornia authorities on the requisition of Governor Markham Sylvester is one of the eight or ten men of his class He was sent to Folsom prison from Yolo county on Sept 20 1SS7 under a sentence of twelve years Imprisonment for a felony He was transferred to San Quentin on March 31 1SS8 and was paroled by the board of prison directors on March 26 of this year Soon thereafter word reached the ears of the prison authorities that Sylvester was again at his old practices I An attempt was made to apprehend him but he had learned what was in the wind and fled the state Eventually he was arrested at Ogden Requisition papers pa-pers were issued by Governor Markham by and with them Captain J C Jamieson proceeded to Utah to bring back his prisoner pris-oner There he found necessary to employ em-ploy an attorney and when he returned to San Francisco without Sylvester his expenses had amounted to 112 The law of California providing for tin arrest of paroles who leave the state had turned out to be a dead letter while the 2 deposit that they are required to make to defray the expense of recommitment had proved totally inadequate REFUSAL OF EXTRADITION 1 The refusal of Governor West of Utah to extradite Sylvester was not due to any jealousy California or to any desire de-sire on his part to exercise a sovereign prerogative It was based upon more serious grounds the practical effect of which will be to render the parole law a nullity When called upon to surrender Sylvester Governor1 West asked the adVIce district attor vice of the United States ney for Utah The1 result was a recommendation recom-mendation in the negative The opinion mendaton conclusion was as was very long butLtthe follows When we recur Edf the certified copy of foi statute we do not find that it makes I the violation of Pa Pje or llcket leave of S absence any of r i or n crime o ay sort against the state of California Lu simply says If any prisoner o paroled shall leave I state without permission from Laid Rwte shall be held as an escaped prisoner and arrested as such There is nothing in the requisition papers pa-pers nor the statutes of California which sttutes makes the violation of a parole a crime but simply makes uch violation a cause of rearrest and Imprisonment so that the raarret question recuf T Do the requisition queston reurf stands papers show that Sylvester stllds papes charged with a crime committed aganst the state wih California and for which his extradition is sought I do not think they do doI greatly appreciate the gravity of the question which you have submitted to me queston as the responsibility resting upon you well governor of Utah in th s matter On the one hand It Js not only made your duty by the constitution and act of Congress Con-gress to deliver fugitive from justice taking refuge in your jurisdiction to a demanding state rftm which he has fled but the highest considerations of comity etatons demand at your tyands a fair and just treatment of the executive of any state nr t rrltr > iir in n matter of this hind On the other Hand the liberty of the individual citizen it Involved Sylvester is I found within yourcjuflsdlction as a citizen citi-zen ngf the United States he has a right to come here hinii remain here protected by I the laws of Utah s long as he shall behave I be-have himself and when 3 demand is made that he be arrested and forcibly extradited ex-tradited to another jurisdiction he has th trdlr right under the laws of the Tn t d States to require of you that the law under un-der which he Is demanded shall b fuly I complied with before you shall l take tfe comple responsibility of depriving him of his liberty a such citizen I there were a wellfounded doubt in the case I should recommend that you resolve that doubt fn favor of the liberty of the citizen and refuse the application citzen for Sylvesters extradition but in any I mind there is no doubt The requisition papers In my opinion wholly fail to comply com-ply with the law and I therefore recommend recom-mend that you do not issue your warrants i of arrest and extradition extrait01 I j NEED OF REPEAL I I The full text of this opinion has been placed in possession of Governor Marc ham and while I it may be found practical i nedt exl Wi eoioM l to cause the extradition of Sylvester under un-der his conviction of a felony it Is pla n that nothing can be done under the parole law The example set by the Moses of the new exodus Is act t be folovved by others of the paroled gentry They have to report to the authorities oplv once a Olly month California is not so broad that in that period an energetic ticketofIeave man animated by f high idea of the individual in-dividual liberty of the citizen may not flee this land of bondags and find freedom in the swamps of Oregon the sage brush of Nevada the cactus plains of Arizona or even the saline plains of Utah The parole law has j always been regarded re-garded with disfavor i by those whose duty require the apprehension and convict on ot criminals Now that the Sylvester episode epi-sode has found it contain a fatal flan their hostility to the measure has been increased in-creased I is not possible to guird the frontiers of the state and under the Utah ruling the liberation of felons on parole simply means their full rS ° tora tion to freedom Not to speak of the idiosyncracies of juries and the leniency of judges which often make justice a mockery ample mean are provided to correct any undue severity in the execution execu-tion of the pqml laws Tin iooilwin act which by reckoning credits nmterily l mUices terms of Imprisonment Is one of these Another is the power of omtmitit on and pardon conferred upon the governor A third is the p > oii < oii of the law tint S tlio Vrtnrrl Cif nrhn fHrcr nrc mlict rcnnrf W tc the governor from time to time the names of any and all prisoners confined in state prisons who in their judgment ought to be pardoned out anti l set at liberty on account of good conduct or unusual un-usual term of sentence or anv other cause which in their opinion should entitle the prisoner to pardon The parole law possesses manv objectionable objec-tionable features which were pointed out by penalopisls and the press at the time it was under discussion I was all to no purpose Powerful Influences were behind the bill and it became a law low however how-ever it has been tried and found want ncr Not only are the board of prison directors subjected to the influences of the pull but under the rules adopted the wardens captains of the guard and physicians it the prisons are exposed to the same Influences |