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Show SHOULD HARRY ORCHARD OR-CHARD BE PARDONED Public sentiment approved the commutation of the death sentence sen-tence of Harry Orchard to life imprisonment because he had made a confession, which, while it revealed a criminal career without a counterpart in history, should have condemned others to the penalty imposed upon him. Through a miscarriage of justice the men who used Harry Orchard to kill and destroy escaped es-caped the gallows and were set free following whicn Orchard was arraigned and sentenced to be hung. He made no defense, but having done all he could to bring the master criminals to j'ustice, it was an act of simple fairness to allow him to live the rest of his natural life withm the prison walls. There has always al-ways been a sort of public sym-pahy sym-pahy for Orchard, but never any disposition to condone his unspeakable un-speakable crimes. Sympathy if it may be so called, never went beyond Orchard's hard luck in being the only one of. the guilty conspirators who was made to pay the penalty for his shocking career of crime. The fact that the others got away without punishment does not diminish in the least Orchard's guilt. He, it is said, is now a reformed man but why should any board of pardons intervene now. Whether a man who deliberately with cool calculation committed crime after crime, murder after murder mur-der and with total disregarded for the lives of others, not included in-cluded in his murderous plans can be reformed it is hard to state. He may, after years of confinement (17 years) give evidence evi-dence of being a changed man, but can this justify any board of pardon in restoring him to freedom? As it seems no new evidence has been produced to indicate that injustice is being done. |
