Cortland Evening Standard, Thursday, April 3, 1902.
APPEAL FOR CLEMENCY.
Attorney McCrahon Appears Before Governor Odell for John Truck.
Claims that Truck
was Insane and that there had been Insanity in the Family—
Governor will not
Interfere with Law, but will appoint two Eminent Alienists
to Ascertain Truck's
Mental Condition—Governor's Letter to District Attorney Dowd and the Latter’s
strong reply.
ALBANY, April 3.—Governor Odell gave a hearing this
morning to Attorney McCrahon for the condemned murderer John Truck, who is now
in Auburn awaiting the execution of his death sentence. Counsel said that Truck
was undoubtedly insane at the time of the commission of crime; insanity had
been in his family and the four experts at the trial were unable to agree as to
his sanity.
The governor said he did not want to
interfere with the carrying out of the law, but nevertheless he would appoint
two prominent alienists, among them Dr. Pilgrim, superintendent of the Hudson
River State hospital, to examine into Truck's mental condition and make report.
District Attorney Thomas H. Dowd has
received a communication from Governor B. B. Odell, through his secretary, James
G. Graham, in regard to the application for executive clemency that has been
made by Attorney McCrahon for John Truck who is convicted and sentenced to
death for the murder of Frank W. Miller of Virgil. The letter received by the
district attorney and his reply to it:
STATE OF NEW YORK,
EXECUTIVE CHAMBER,
ALBANY, April 1, 1902.
Thomas H. Dowd, Esq.,
Cortland, N. Y.:
Dear Sir:—Application for executive clemency having
been made on behalf of John Truck who was convicted of murder in the county of
Cortland and sentenced March 17, 1900, to be executed, I am directed by the
governor respectfully to ask your opinion of the merits of the application. The
governor has a copy of the appeal book and also copy of the opinion of the
court of appeals in which the facts are set forth. No statement of the grounds
upon which the application is based has yet been filed. It is particularly
requested that each letter of inquiry from the executive chamber should be
separately answered.
Very respectfully
yours,
JAMES G. GRAHAM,Secretary to the Governor.
District Attorney Dowd has made
the following reply to the governor:
CORTLAND, N. Y., April
3, 1902.
His Excellency, Hon.
B. B. Odell,
Governor of State of
New York,
Albany. N. Y.
DEAR SIR—I have received your request of April 1, 1902,
for my opinion with reference to the application made on behalf of John Truck,
who was convicted of murder in the county of Cortland, and which judgment of
conviction was recently affirmed by the court of appeals. I thank you for the opportunity
of expressing my opposition to a commutation of the sentence imposed upon the
defendant, Truck; and in expressing this opposition, I believe that I voice the
sentiments of all those persons who were concerned in the prosecution, and
assisted in securing the conviction. By reference to the appeal book, your Excellency
will observe that no evidence was submitted by the defendant, except upon the
question of his insanity. It was conceded upon the trial, therefore, that Truck
was guilty of killing Miller, his victim, and no contention has since been
made, that he might be innocent of that charge.
The murder was unusually atrocious in its
character. Frank W. Miller, the victim, was murdered on the 14th day of March,
1899, at his home in the town of Virgil, Cortland county, N. Y., where he resided
alone. His house was located in a sparsely settled neighborhood, on a crossroad
about three-fourths of a mile from the main highway. His nearest neighbors were
so far removed from his house, that the Miller house could not be seen from
their residences.
At about 11 o'clock on that night, neighbors
discovered a fire in MiIIer's house, and arriving upon the scene, they found the
house wrapped in flames. As the sides of the building burned away, they saw what
appeared to be a human body lying face down, in a lower bedroom, and covered with
clothing. When the floor gave away, this object was precipitated head down into
the cellar. Shortly afterward, the body was recovered and fully identified as
being that of Miller. The autopsy disclosed that death was caused by a blow
upon the head, which fractured the skull, resulting in hemorrhage and
suffocation, and was not caused by burning.
The defendant formerly lived in this neighborhood,
but at the time of homicide, resided at Homer, some ten miles distant. On the
13th and 14th days of March, the defendant was seen in the Miller
neighborhood. And to the various persons who met him there made contradictory
statements as to the nature of his business in that locality. Immediately after
the murder, it was discovered that a gray horse, a wagon and harness, and other
articles of personal property had been stolen from Miller’s barn and house, and
the most of this personal property was found in the possession of this defendant,
two days after the murder had been committed. It will be therefore observed,
that there is no question but that this defendant killed Miller, and the purpose
of killing was to gain possession of Miller's personal effects.
The crime was skillfully planned, and if his
victim’s body had been consumed by the flames, the people would have been unable
to establish the corpus delicti, and Truck could not have been convicted. The
defendant entirely failed upon the trial to establish the defense of insanity.
The bulk of the testimony offered by defendant’s witnesses upon this subject
was confined to the personal appearance of the defendant, and to certain habits
of life. In rebuttal of this testimony, the people's witnesses showed
conclusively, that Truck was possessed of much intelligence and considerable
mechanical skill; that he had been, for the greater
part of his life, a laborer, and has worked at
various occupations in which he has shown himself
apt and willing, diligent and faithful, and has
generally received for his services, the average wages paid laborers of his class.
During the defendant’s confinement in prison,
and his trial, he demonstrated that he not only comprehended the nature of his
crime, and knew that it was wrong, but also understood fully the nature of the
punishment therefor. While confined in Cortland county jail he wrote two letters by means of which he sought
to throw suspicion upon a third party. The letters were sent in the name of the
third party, and declared that the defendant, John Truck, was not the person who
committed the crime, but that the writer was the real criminal. The defendant
also systematically endeavored to deceive experts as to his real mental
condition. The question of defendant’s insanity was thoroughly tried. Two
eminent alienists, to wit: Dr. Allan McLean Hamilton and Dr. Henry Allison,
made careful examinations of the defendant and his mental condition, and
testified that Truck was not insane, but comprehended the nature of the crime,
and knew that it was wrong. The question was submitted to the jury, and the
unanimous verdict of the jury was, that Truck was not insane, but was
responsible for his deed. This question was submitted to the court of appeals,
and that court found no reason for a reversal of the judgment.
The prosecution of the defendant has been
attended with great expense to the county of Cortland. Much labor and care have
been exercised in securing the defendant’s conviction, and, the subsequent
presentation of the case to the court of appeals. The defendant was guilty, and
has been so found, of a cold blooded murder. No case that has recently come
under my observation is so undeserving of executive clemency. If this defendant
should not be deprived of his life, as punishment of his crime, then the law of
capital punishment should be repealed.
The people of this county have no personal
enmity or felling against John Truck. His crime has caused them great expense
and trouble, all of which they have incurred and undergone in order that the law
might be vindicated and the guilty punished. They hope that the law may be
allowed to take its course to the end that justice might be vindicated, and
society and its safety be protected.
Yours
respectfully,
THOMAS H.
DOWD,District Attorney.
Editor’s Note:
On March
25, 1902, in the case of People vs. Truck, an opinion by the New York Court of
Appeals found no material error in the trial and unanimously affirmed the
judgment and order of the lower court. Judge Bartlett wrote the decision. “Assuming
as we must,” wrote Judge Bartlett, “that this defendant was sane when he
committed this brutal crime, justice requires that he should suffer the extreme
penalty of the law.”
The Court of Appeals decision was published in
the Cortland Evening Standard on Friday,
April 11, 1902.
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