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Show For Governor " OF UTAH TERRITOEY, Samuel A. Merritt. PARDONS. We have frequently commented upon the granting of pardons to criminals, and condemned the practice. Governor Hoad-ley Hoad-ley in his message, and which, hy the way, is a most able and admirable document, docu-ment, speaks of pardons in this language: lan-guage: The views expressed in my last message upon the snbject of the pardoning power remain re-main unchanged. I granted only nineteen pardons daring the year between November 15, 1884, and November 15, 1885. Of these, one was forfeited by breach of condition and !the prisoner returned to confinement. I have been made to feel very keenly the absence ab-sence of protection to the Governor from imposition and fraud in this class of appli-. appli-. cations. They are ex parte, and with all the i time and trouble the Governor may take for investigation he can hardly ever be abso- - lutely sure that he is safe in either granting or refusing. - The applications for pardons are always ex parte and very rarely are such applications appli-cations any thing but a plaintive cry on II behalf of a criminal who deserves nothing but punishment. If there is good reason j for pardoning a man after trial and con- viction then the same reasons should be sufficient to induce a prosecuting officer to enter a plea of nolle prosequi. As a rule every fact that can be set forth as a ; reason for the exercise of the pardoning .j - power is brought out on the trial and is 4 weighed by an impartial jury. I There is little chance to - im- pose upon a jury in a trial, ! but there is every chance to impose upon an Executive. The majority of those who sign applications for pardons do so j at the solicitation of friends of the pris- I oner, and upon the representations of j these friends as to the facts in the case, j These friends say that the facts were so I i and so, and those who are solicited to i ' sign the application say that if such is the i j ' case they will sign their names. The con- I 1 ' sequence is that men are induced to sign these applications upon an ex parte I : assertion of facts and not upon proof of j ; facts. Those who assert the facts may be i ' i sincere, but their sincerity does not prove : i their assertions. It very seldom happens jj that all the facts in a criminal case are ; !N not brought out, and experience proves i! that the facts which may not come out it : are generally suppressed by the person on j trial, and suppressed because they would (j i , . make more clear his guilt. No man can : ' j judge of the merits of a case by hearing 1 ' ; only one side of it so well as twelve men can v i who hear both sides and who are sworn j ' to bring in a verdict according to the evi- f dence. The number of criminals who r i escape is far greater Jthan the number : , . . of innocent men who are wrongfully .' ' ' convicted. The complaint all over the I1 country has been that the jury system was inadequate to punish crime on ac-count ac-count of the indulgence given criminals j; hy juries. Such being the case, there are I $ very few cases in which there can be any &' good reason for granting pardons to men j who have been found guilty by a jury. ! The pardoning power should be either in I ,j a Governor or a Board of Pardons, but J j ; it should be exercised most cautiously. |