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Show I Life Imprisonment for Orchard I The State Obligated Itself to (,1cm- ency in the Case. H BOISE. Idaho, July 1. Acting on H the recommendation made by Judge laaaV H Fremunl Wood tit tho time .sen- H tencc was pronounced, ttiu Idahostates H board of pardons today commuted the H the sentence of Harry Orchard to lm- H prlsonmcnt for life. Oreliaid was sen- H tenccd to be executed Friday of this H week. H The pardon board, consisting of H Governor Gooding, Secretary of state H Lansdon and Attorney General Gu- H heen, met In regular session today mid H and took up the Orchard case. Frank H Wyman, an attorney appointed by the H court to represent Orchard, appeared H before the board and presented an ar- H Rumcnt In behalf of his client, basing H his plea solely on the legal status of H the case, and maintaining, as was H held by Judge Wood in recommending H clemency, that In making Orchard a H state's witness the state obligated It- H . self to extend consideration to htm In H return. Mo one appeared to oppose h the proposed commutation, and bj H unanimous vote of the board clemency H was extended. H' Orchard was arrested two days after H ' the assassination of ex-Governor Steu- ? nenberg atCaldwell,December30,lu05, M . and a few weeks later, while confined M In the Idaho penitentiary, confessed M his guilt to James McParland of the m Plnkerton detective agency at the H same time charging that he was em- M, ployed to commit the crime by olllcers M Of the Western Fedsrallon of Minus M As a result of his confessluu, Charles H 3. Moyer, president of the federation, B, William D. Haywood, secretary-treas- H ' . urer, and George D. i'ettlbone, all of H Denver, were arrested in that city m, and brought to Idaho to answer the M charge of murder. Indictments were L returnfd aguliibt them and John Simp bbbW ' , kins, a member of the executive board of the federation. . Slmpklns escaped and Is still a fugitive. Haywood and I'ettlbone were acquitted after, mem-oiable mem-oiable trials In which Orchard told a story of wholesale assassination which shocked the world. Following the trial of Pettlbono the case against Moyer was dismissed. Orchard who was Indicted separately separate-ly when arraigned after his confession, stood mute and the court directed that a plea of not guilty be entered. Ills case was continued from term till term until April 10 of this year, when his case was called at Caldwell and he asked permission to change his plea. The court granted the request and Orchard Or-chard pleaded guilty to murder In the iirst degree. In pronouncing the sentence sen-tence of death a week later, Judge Wood recommended that the board of pardons commute tho sentence. In making this recommendation Judge Wood stated that he was firmly convinced con-vinced that Orchard had told the whole and exact truth at the trials of Haywood and Pettlbono, and that he was therefore, for the service rendered ren-dered the state, entitled to clemency. Orchard to the last was opposed to having the sentence of the court Interfered Inter-fered with. Only yesterday he expressed ex-pressed to his attorney the hope that cITorts to save him from the gallows would fall. |