Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 April 1909 — SUPREME COURT TURNS IT SOWN [ARTICLE]

SUPREME COURT TURNS IT SOWN

And Tom McCoy Wilh Serve Full Sentence. NO “GOOD TIME” ALLOWANCE Says the' Court, Same Having Been Repealed By Implication In Indeterminate Sentence Act——Sentence Will Expire June 21—Taylor McCoy, Tom’s Son, Passed Through Rensselaer Wednesday Enroute To West Baden .With His Uncle “Watt” Taylor. The Supreme Court Tuesday affirmed the decision refusing to discharge Thomas J. McCoy from tile State Prison at Michigan City, on the ground that his statutory allowance of “good time” had caused his sentence to expire. -McCoy was convicted of a violation of the hanking act,' causing loss to depositors in his bank at Rensselaer, and was given an indeterminate sentence of one to three years in June, 1906. The court says that the statute of 1883, providing for an allowance of “good time’ z in favor of a prisoner who obeys the prison rules was obviously repealed by the inde-terminate-sentence law of 1897, now in force. “The inconsistencies between the provisions of these two acts,” said Judge Jordan, after stating the substance of each act, “are obvious, and it is therefore not necessary that all be referred to or pointed out specifically.” The court refuses to disapprove the decision in Woodward vs. Murdock, 124 Ind., 439, by which a construction was given to the former law, and calls attention to the great difference between such construction and the interpretation of the indeterminate sentence act in Terry vs. Byers, 161 Ind., 360. “For the reasons given,” concludes the opinion written by Judge Jordan, “appellant’s claim or demand that he be discharged from prison before the expiration of his maximum term, which is three years from the date of his sentence, June 21, 1906, must be denied.” The decision against McCoy was unlooked for by his relatives or attorneys, and was a great disappointment to the former, who were on hand with transportation to take Tom west immediately after he was released, as they expected he would be. Tom’s son, Taylor McCoy, and the former’s brother-in-law, W. W. Taylor, passed through Rensselaer on the 10:55 a. m., train Wednesday, enroute for a short sojourn at- West Baden. The Democrat editor and E. P. Henan were on the same train and saw and talked with them. Both talked freely of Tom and themselves. Taylor said that he had been in the U. S. Navy, but got out —just how he did not state —a few months ago, and had Ufeen working as an accountant for the Southern Pacific railroad company with headquarters at El Paso, Texas. He also showed his credentials from said company. He said that the decision of the supreme court was disappointing to them; that they had hoped to have his father released and that he had transportation with him to take his father along with him and his uncle to Texas or to the coast.

Taylor Is not the boy Rensselaer used to know. He admitted that hie service in the navy had tamed him down considerably, and said that he would have been better off had his father made him learn some good trade rather than attempt to give him a classical education. He now has a manly and very gentlemanly bearing, is a pleasant conversationalist and seems endowed with more common sense than all the rest of the McCoy’s put together. He bears no evidence of dissipation but has the appearance of a well balanced and intelligent young man of good breeding. Referring to his father’s troubles he made no excuses for the latter except to say that politics had much to do with it, and seemed to think that the congenial political spirits who gathered' around Tom when he was in the hey day of his popularity and helped him to spend other people’s money, was one great cause for his going wrong. Watson W. Taylor, the uncle who was with him, was formerly the republican state treasurer of South Dakota, who also several years ago went wrong through too much poll-

tics and political friends, and was a defaulter for a great many thousands of dollars. He served time for this offense, but was finally pardoned out. He is now engaged in the telephone business on a large scale in some of the coast states and Intimated that he had made good to such an extent that he could take life easily the remainder or his days. He said it was their intention to take Tom out with him as soon as he was released from prison. Mr. Taylor was well groomed and had the appearance of a man in easy Circumstances.