Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 January 1913 — THE ABUSE OF THE PARDON PRACTICE [ARTICLE]

THE ABUSE OF THE PARDON PRACTICE

Alvo O. Reser, of Lafayette, Criticises Patdon of Murderer Freeman by Governor. ' Alvo O. Reser, of Lafayette, who was the , court stenographer when a man named Freeman was convicted in that city some fourteen years ago of the murder of his wife, roundly criticises the abuse of the pardon practice. Freeman was recently pardoned by the governor after the board had recommended it. Some . lawyer had planned a scheme to deceive the board and the board had fallen for it without making any investigation. The board was. infprmed that Freeman had found his wife in the arms of another man and had become so enraged that he killed her. Reser says that the report is a lie, manufactured out of whole cloth and that no evidence of that kind was ever introduced in defense when he was on trial. He correctly says that it is a disgrace and a shame beyond understanding to think that a man after having murdered his virtuous wife would fourteen years after try to justify his crime by dragging her name in dishonor. It is a crime little less than that of the murder he so foully committed. The prison ? board, could easily have consulted the records tn Tippecanoe county to ascertain what the evidence was but they did not do so. They accepted the carefully in behalf of the criminal and recommended that the murderer be pardoned and caused to be published over the state a disgraceful insult to the .memory of a wife who had done all of a good wife’s duty and following years of abuse had been shot to death by a debauched husband. Alvo O. Reser has done a gpod service to the state and to society by pointing out this grave pardon board blunder. Freeman should be loathed by all respectable people for having connived with an unscrupulous lawyer to secure his freedom by maligning the memory of his victim.