Salt Lake Telegram | 1936-03-14 | Page 4 | Hoffman Keeps His Word

f t I I I Hoffman Word Keeps His I W WHEN HEN Governor Harold Hoffman of New J Jersey Jer Jer- ersey er- er TV sey granted Bruno Hauptmann a reprieve In order that an effort might be made to clear up angles of the case he had been brought to view with some degree of suspicion ion he be announced announced announced an an- that this was the only act of clemency he would extend Thursday was the last day he had for taking any other legal step to delay I the execution of the Lindbergh infants infant's murderer murder murder- er r set for the week of M March 20 Governor Hoffman kept his word stating formally that he has no intention of extending ding the original re re- re Not to take any chance however that the legislature or the governor may interfere with the he execution county's prosecutor A A. M. M Hauck is reported as planning to seek a acourt acourt court writ commanding the prison warden to carry arry out the instructions in the death warrant It rt is an indication of prevailing public uneasiness uneasiness ness about the final outcome of one of the nations nation's nations nation's nations nation's na na- na- na tion's most celebrated criminal trials In this restiveness the queer character of Dr John F. F Condon the of the ransom negotiations again enters Returning Tuesday from his strangely timed vacation cruise some some individuals indi vi duals believe he can be made to tell about a aI anew I new mystery figure figur figure figure-an an an individual supposed to have built the kidnap ladder for Hauptmann This may seem incredible now now but but there has been so much about the connection of the eccentric eccentric ec ec- ec centric school teacher that has been ible With the entrance of Governor Hoffman into the Hauptmann case almost at the eleventh hour hour this country has been treated to the highly 1 unusual spectacle of trial by gover governor or There have been instances of trial by mobs and oc occasional occasional oc- oc 1 charges of trial by newspapers but Governor Hoffman provides the lone example of trial by a state executive In the face of rulings of four courts he reopened the case to examine one or more of the states state's witnesses an and publicly declared his conclusions as to the weight of the evidence of each Consequently the sensational case has been allowed to enter politics This is no brief for or against Hauptmann The The law decided his case long ago Neither is this js a question of Governor Hoffmans Hoffman's right to tor r examine the case although under New Jersey law he does not so much as hold the power of pardon But one wonders if there isn't something something something some- some thing woefully lacking in a system that permits impromptu retrial of a case by a governor with consequent circumvention of orderly legal v processes