Page:Special message of the governor of Iowa to the seventeenth General assembly, communicating report of pardons and remissions (IA specialmessageof00iowa).pdf/8

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REPORT OF PARDONS.
[No. 1a.

one. He had served in the army of the Union, and seems there to have acquired habits of intoxication, which had got him into the difficulty that brought about his imprisonment. Pardon recommended by L. Bullis, J. Matthews, J. P., Judge Burt, and others, and by the prison officers.

John Martinson. September 19. Committed to the Additional Penitentiary December 16, 1873, by the district court of Allamakee county, for the crime of manslaughter, for a term of five years. Martinson was endeavoring to preserve order at a masked ball, and prevent those entering who, though not entitled to, were trying to force their way into the hall. The crime was committed under the heat of passion, and he is now truly and sincerely penitent. Pardon recommended by nine of the jurors who tried the case, the other three being dead; by the ex-clerk and present clerk, auditor, and sheriff of the county, and by the district-attorney, the circuit judge, and other citizens.

James A. Bryan. October 13. Committed to the Additional Penitentiary July 15, 1874, for three years for the crime of embezzlement of public money, in Jackson county. This is a contested case, petitions and remonstrances both being presented. The petitioners are much the more numerous. Of the jury that convicted Bryan, ten petition for his pardon. Hon. Lyman A. Ellis, district-attorney by whom he was prosecuted, recommends it, as does Hon. G. W. Trumbull by letter. A letter from the warden shows that, counting the days Bryan has been imprisoned by the number of days’ labor performed at ten hours per day, he had at the date of his pardon performed labor to the amount of eighteen days in excess of his sentence, less the commutation thereof contemplated by law. This pardon does not affect a fine imposed on him as a part of the sentence for his offense.

D. C. Foster. October 25. Convicted March 9, 1873, by district court, and sentenced to fine of one dollar, and costs of suit taxed at $209.25, and imprisonment in the Mahaska county jail at hard labor for six months, for the crime of obtaining money under false pretenses. This pardon is granted upon condition that if Foster shall, at any time during the period for which he was sentenced to imprisonment, be charged with a violation of the criminal law of the State in any particular, and the governor of the State shall be satisfied that said charge is true, then and in that case said Foster shall be liable to arrest upon the certificate and warrant of the governor, to confinement in the county jail of Mahaska for the full term of his sentence, and to the payment of the fine and costs imposed against him, in the same manner as if this pardon had not been granted.