Granted on the recommendation of Thomas Sturgis, President of the Board of Managers, and of Frank W. Robertson, Acting General Superintendent of the Reformatory. Sherman pleaded guilty, but from a careful examination of the facts, it appears that there was really no attempt to commit burglary, the act complained of being simply a trespass.

December 21, 1900. George de Jordan. Sentenced December 16, 1893; county, Jefferson; crime, burglary, first degree; maximum term, twenty years; prison, State Reformatory. Transferred to Matteawan State Hospital.

The prisoner went into a boarding-house and stole a few articles of trifling value. Although the facts were such as technically to constitute burglary in the first degree, there was nothing in the case demanding severe punishment. Imprisonment for seven years is more than enough.

COMMUTATIONS

January 3, 1900.

Chiara Cignarale. Sentenced June 3,

1887, to be executed, and sentence commuted, July 27, 1888, to imprisonment for life; county, New York; crime, murder, first degree; prison, New York Penitentiary and State Prison for Women.

Commuted to eleven years, five months and ten days, actual time.

The prisoner was convicted of murder for killing her husband. She committed the crime, being exasperated by his long-continued cruel and inhuman treatment, and although his conduct furnished no justification for her act, it may, under all the circumstances of the case, be properly taken into account in considering her application for mitigation of punishment. She had always been a woman of good character and her conduct during her imprisonment has been in all respects commendable. She has now been imprisoned for a term which, with the reduction allowed for good conduct in cases of imprisonment for less than life, is equivalent to more than twenty years. The commutation has been very earnestly requested personally and officially by Baron Fava, the Italian Ambassador at Washington.

January 8, 1900. William O'Brien. Sentenced November 20, 1896; county, New York; crime, grand larceny, first degree; term, ten years; prison, Sing Sing.

Commuted to three years, one month and nineteen days, actual time.

O'Brien has served about half his term, less the usual deduction for good behavior. He will probably not live long, being very ill with consumption, and Mrs. Maud B. Booth makes a very earnest appeal for his release.

January 9, 1900. Valentine Dick. Sentenced December 12, 1898; county, New York; crime, assault, second degree; term, three years; prison, Sing Sing.

Commuted to one year and twenty-seven days, actual time. The assault did not result in serious injury to the complainant, and the evidence on the trial tended very strongly to show that he was really the aggressor. The prisoner appears to be a man of good character, and the judge and the district attorney think his case a proper one for clemency.

February 8, 1900. John Gerkey, or Yerkey. Sentenced March 28, 1895; county, Niagara; crime, arson, third degree; term, six years and eight months; prison, Auburn.

Commuted to three years, seven months and eighteen days, actual time.

The prisoner was confined in the county jail for more than a year awaiting decision. of an appeal from the judgment of conviction. Judge Millar, before whom he was tried, thinks it but just to allow that time as part of his sentence.

March 24, 1900. John Flynn. Sentenced January 12, 1898; county, New York; crime, assault, second degree; term, five years; prison, Sing Sing.

Commuted to two years, two months and twelve days, actual time.

Two trials were had in this case, the first trial resulting in a disagreement. An examination of the evidence given on

the second trial, as briefly reported by the district attorney, shows that the case was an exceedingly weak one and that an acquittal would have been fully warranted. The complainant and the defendant, the only witnesses to the occurrence, each testified, in effect, that the other was the aggressor and alone responsible for the assault and its results. The defendant's testimony seems fully as credible and at least as well supported by the circumstances as that of the complainant, and there does not appear to have been any very good reason for rejecting his account of the facts and accepting that of his accuser. He is represented to have been a man of good character and, considering the doubt as to his guilt, the sentence, which was for the full term allowed by law, seems quite severe. He has now served, with the commutation for good conduct, nearly three years.

May 3, 1900. Hugh McMahon. Sentenced December 9, 1897; county, Onondaga; crime, robbery, third degree; term, four years and eight months; prison, Auburn.

Commuted to two years, four months and twenty-four days, actual time.

May 3, 1900.

Thomas Kelly. Sentenced December 9, 1897; county, Onondaga; crime, attempting to commit robbery, third degree; term, four years and seven months; prison, Auburn.

Commuted to two years, four months and twenty-four days, actual time.

These two prisoners were separately convicted on the same indictment, one of robbery and the other of attempting to commit robbery. The evidence to prove the commission of either crime was quite meager, and it is exceedingly doubtful

if the offense actually committed was more than simple assault. The judge and the district attorney are in favor of commuting the sentences.

May 3, 1900. Jacob Gerhardt. Sentenced June 18, 1881; county, Sullivan; crime, murder, second degree; term, life; prison, Clinton.

Commuted to eighteen years, ten months and seven days, actual time.

The facts, as reported by the district attorney, fully sustain him in the view that the conviction ought not to have been for a higher grade of homicide than manslaughter in the first degree. The killing, the result of a sudden quarrel, was committed in the heat of passion and without any real purpose to effect death. Until the commission of the crime, Gerhardt had always borne a good character, and his conduct during his long imprisonment has been exemplary. He has now served a longer term than the maximum penalty for manslaughter and commutation of his sentence is recommended by the district attorney who procured the conviction, by his associate counsel, by the county judge, who was a member of the trial court, by the present county judge and by other leading citizens of Sullivan county.

May 3, 1900. James Russell. Sentenced March 18, 1890; county, New York; crime, burglary, first degree; term, twenty years; prison, Sing Sing.

Commuted to ten years, one month and sixteen days, actual time.

The prisoner was convicted of breaking and entering a liquor store. Ordinarily, this would constitute burglary in the third degree, the maximum penalty for which is five years; but it appearing that the proprietor and his family lived on