Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 March 1910 — COV. MARSHALL GRANTS PAROLE [ARTICLE]

COV. MARSHALL GRANTS PAROLE

And Bader Will Be At Liberty Under $2,000 Bond. MUST APPEAL CASE IH 30 DAYS To Supreme Court, and Unless Freed By Some Technicality Winamac Bridge Grafter Must Suffer the Penalty for His Offense—Governor’s Interference Not Relished Here, Where Crime Was Committed.

Governor Marshall has granted a parole to C. L. Bader, president and general manager of the Winamac Bridge Co., pending his appeal to the supreme court. The temporary parole mentioned in Wednesday’s; Democrat, has been extended, and the conditions are that he shall give a $2,000 bond and make the appeal in 30 days. While this stay of judgment does not affect the final punishment unless the defendant shall be freed on some mere technicality by the higher court, the general feeling here is that if it is the law that pending an appeal of this kind the prisoner shall go to prison, Gov. Marshall is not justified in granting a parole in this case.

The crime was committed in Jasper county, against the taxpayers here, and not in the defendant’s home town of Winamac, from whence the petition for the parole was made. A jury of twelve good men found the defendant guilty as charged, on the undisputed and unimpeachable evidence presented by the state, there being absolutely no question whatever of the guilt of the defendant, and had the penalty not been so great a decision would have been reached by the jury in 15 minutes; the Judge of the court then made an investigation of other bridges erected in this county by Bader's company, the young man who did the investigating having the absolute confidence of every person who knows him, and he found the same swindle in every bridge examined. In view of this, regardless of the strong petition from Winamac, we say in all candor that Governor Marshall should have let the law take its course. His interference is unwise and is unfair to the jury, unfair to the court, unfair to the prosecution and unfair to the people who have been swindled. yUnder this process of administering “justice” the poor malefactor who can not put up a $2,000 bond would have to go to prison pending an appeal, but the offender having social and political friends at his beck and call can remain at liberty while shrewd lawyers try to find loop-holes in the prosecution to free him altogether. xUnder the law, as we understand it, and as we know this case from hearing practically all the evidence, the governor has erred greatly in interfering, and if a petition was to be considered at all it should have come from this county, the agrieved party, and been signed by the Judge, Prosecutor, Jurors and a large number of the taxpayers. There is nothing in the evidence that can free the defendant, and if freed at all it must be on some trifling technicality of the prosecution, and not because he is innocent of the graft.