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Show Six Years For $500 A few years ago the Mississippi hcuse of representatives voted an appropriation of $500 to Moses Valk :i, a negro v. ho had been pardoned after serv.n; six years in the pen-itenusnary. pen-itenusnary. Ke had been convic- i .n cl.i-ges of shooting into a ; . nit? man's home and sentenced to l.i'j imprisonment. On his deathh-bed the white man : j : a x! that he had "framed'' the - (To because cf a grudge, had -hot the hole in his own house to substantiate the false chargs, and-that and-that the nefjro was entirely inno-c.-r.. cf the crime. I I; is difficult to understand how rnyone could deliberately swcirj away the liberty of an Innocent oeison merely through spite, but in many cases not only liberty but : Life itself has been sworn away, j That in this case the real crimin- , al s conscience troubled him is evi- I drnc. At least it began to trouDlo . him when death stared him in the i .u j The $500 voted by the state is better than nothing, but it is poor recompense for six years of unjust imprisonment. Persons wrong'ul-ly wrong'ul-ly Imprisoned, when such wrongful imprisonment can be conclusively proved, should be entitled to sub-' stantial damages by law, and ' the severest penalties should be imposed im-posed on those who are responsible tor willfully bringing about the conviction con-viction of innocent citizens, white .ir black. |