Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 June 1910 — “DAN” DAY IS PAROLED [ARTICLE]

“DAN” DAY IS PAROLED

After Serving Two Years For Murder of Daisy Phillips. RETURNED HOME SATURDAY. v ' i Was Sent Up From Jasper County In May, 19Q8, for From Two to Twenty-One Years, After Conviction for Manslaughter. Minimum Term Having Expired He Is Turned By Prison Parole Board.

Jasper county is certainly having considerable experience witn Indiana’s parole policy, arid we believe we voice the sentiment of 99. per cent of the people when we say that its experience has not been of a character to popularize the law or policy in this county. The parole of Robert Parker, the failed Remington banker, a few weeks ago after his having served only two years for embezzling some $300,000 did not strike a popular chord, and especially so in Remington and vicinity where the major part of the victims of the failure reside. And Saturday afternoon, when “Dan” Day stepped off the Louisville train with a parole in his pocket from the parole board of the Jeffersonville reformatory, after having served but two years for the cold-blooded murder of a' young girl in Rensselaer, the people here were given a shock that is not calculated to increase respect for the law in general and the Indiana parole law in particular. If a thief is caught in one’s

chicken house he would have to serve as long art imprisonment, if convicted, as was meted out in both of these instances, and the opinion of many is that our statutes need revising so that the penalty more nearly fits the crime. Surely, he who robs his fellowmen of $300,000 oi who deliberately pulls a revolver from his pocket and shoots down without the slightest provocation a fair young girl in the first blush of young womanhood, should be punished more than he who steals one measly chicken to perhaps furnish broth for a family that perhaps is unused to chicken luxuries.

On Friday morning, April 3, 1908, the peaceful city >pf Rensselaer was thrown into a furor of excitement by learning that “Dan” Day, a crippled and partly irresponsible young man only 21 years of age, had the night before shot down and killed Daisy Phillips, the 17-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Phillips of Rensselaer, and that he had been caught and was then confined in jail. “Dan" had been drinking that fatal night, it developed, and was in love with the girl, who, owing to his unfortunate condition, could not return his love and, so far as known, had given him no encouragement. He had been going to the Phillips home for some three years, he and «. crippled brother of the girl being quite chummy. On the night of the murder he started to leave the house about midnight and as he reached the door, turned and shot the girl dead, then rushed to the home of his brother where he Was later apprehended after a struggle and landed in jail, two revolvers being taken from him when arrested.

His trial was held at the term of court then ifi session and a verdict of manslaughter returned, the jury' feeling that the young man- was hardly responsible for / his actions, and Judge Hanley sentenced him to the reformatory for the term previously stated, and he was taken to Jeffersonville by Joe O’Connor, deputy sheriff. May 11, 1908. Under our prison parole law, each prison has a parole board independent of the state parole board, and by the provisions of our indeterminate sentence law a prisoner automatically presents

himself befofe the parole board of the prison in which he is incarcerated, at the expiration ot his minimum sentence. If there is nothing against him in his prison behavior he is paroled and turned loose, but must report to the board at intervals until granted a permanent parole. The governor nor the state parole board have nothing whatever to do with it. It is presumed “Dan” has f been a model prisoner to have secured his freedom at the expiration of his minimum sentence, and it is hoped that his future conduct will be above reproach. The local authorities should see to it that he carries no more firearms, and if anyone is found selling or giving him liquor they should be summarily dealt with.