Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 May 1900 — PETITIONS TO BE HANGED. [ARTICLE]

PETITIONS TO BE HANGED.

A Kansas Prisoner Mokes a Strange Request of the Governor. Taylor Cook, a convict and now in the penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., has petitioned Gov. Stanley that the death sentence be carried out and that he be hanged for the murder of which he stands convicted. According to the law of Kansas a murderer is punishable by death. But for thirty years no convict in Kansas has suffered the death penalty. Each Governor during that period has refused to sign the fatal death warrant. Taylor Cook was sentenced to the penitentiary ten years ago for the brutal murder of his wife. He now demands that the full penalty of the law be inflicted. This is the third time that Cook has begged the Goveruotr of Kansas to carry out his-official duty under the statutes. There are sixty convicts in the State penitentiary at Leavenworth convicted of murder and waiting only the signing of the deatjj warrant by some Governor to pay the penalty of their crimes. Out of this sixty it is said that twenty are awaiting eagerly the outcome of Taylor Cool** petition. Should Gov. Stanley consent to sign the death warrant these twenty meu will demand a like release for themselves within a short time. It has often been claimed that in disregarding the statute which makes murder an offense punishable by death the Governors of Kansas have inflicted a penalty tenfold more severe. This assertion seems to have received verification in the pathetie story of Taylor Cook. ' When Gov. Stanley received Cook’s petition he immediately w'rote to the convict that in no case would the warrant" be signed unless upon the recommendation of the judge before whom the case was tried and the attorney who prosecuted it. Cook wrote to Jqdge Clark A. Smith, who condemned him, aud to the district attorney, but neither would recommend bis execution. Again he wrote to the Governor. “I have tried to fulfill your requirements,” he said, “and I have failed. It is not through any fault of mine. 1 now insist that you carry out your duty as chief executive of this State and sentence me to execution.” It is believed that Cook will be adjudged insane and sent to an asylum.