Criminal Records, Plymouth County, Iowa... part of Genealogy Trails

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Plymouth County, Iowa Genealogy Trails
Source: Report by the Governor of Iowa, Pardons, Suspensions of Sentence Commutations and Remissions of Fines. DES MOINES: 1900.
[Contributed by: Candi H. 2008]

Criminal Records
Pardons, Suspensions of Sentence Commutations and Remissions of Fines

STATE OF IOWA, EXECUTIVE OFFICE, Des MOINES, March 13, 1900.
PARDONS

ATLEE HART. Plymouth county. Pardoned April 15,1899 —
Sentenced to the penitentiary at Anamosa for a term of one year for the crime of extortion. Pardoned upon the recommendation
of all parties who were interested in the prosecution, and a great number of letters and large petitions signed by citizens of Woodbury county, where the offense was committed, asking pardon.
A suspension in this case had been granted by my predecessor. The only object to be sub served by this order was to restore the
defendant to citizenship. After careful consideration, I am of the opinion no further good can come by longer denying defendant this right.

STATE OF IOWA, EXECUTIVE OFFICE, Des Moines, March 13, 1898
SUSPENSIONS

NICHOLAS LANG -
Plymouth county. February 19,1897. Sentenced at December, 1893, term of the district court, to the state penitentiary for a period of ten years, for the offense of murder in the second degree.
Granted upon the recommendation of the trial judge, the county attorney, and sheriff of Plymouth county, a petition signed by over 400 representative citizens of the town of Remsen and Plymouth county, including a majority of the county officials of Plymouth county, and a large number of letters
from prominent citizens of northwestern Iowa. Said suspension is to remain in force during such time as the said defendant shall abstain from the use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage, absent himself from all places where intoxicating liquors are sold, and in every respect demean himself as an orderly and law-abiding citizen.

HAYDEN MCFARLAND -
Plymouth county. June 12, 1897. Sentenced at December, 1892, term of the district court to the penitentiary at Anamosa, for a term of twenty years, for the offense of murder in the second degree.
Granted upon the recommendation of the trial judge, who says: "In my judgment the request made in the application ought to be granted,
for it appears from reliable information that he is now very ill, and will die if not relieved from confinement. It appears that he has already been sufficiently punished, and will, if pardoned, live, if he lives at all, an upright life." There is also on file a petition signed by more than 1,000 prominent and reliable citizens of Plymouth county, including the county officials, and the city officials of Le Mars, and a letter from the prison physician and several physicians of Anamosa, saying
that McFarland is suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis, with no chance for recovery, and that he has been confined in the prison hospital most of the time for the past two years; and for the further reason that I have had a special representative visit the penitentiary, and in his report to me he says that the statements now on file in the executive office regarding the defendant are true, and in my opinion it is only an act of mercy that the defendant be released to return to his parents, that they may minister to his necessities during the remaining days of his life. To remain in force during good behavior.