General [13 items]

The Hon. Wm. Spry, Governor of the State of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.

W A S H I N G T O N, D. C.

To the Hon. William Spry, Governor of the State of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.

The Undersigned, all being citizens of the United States, and whose addresses are set opposite their names, having been informed concerning the recent trial and conviction of one Joseph Hillstrom (also known as Joe Hill), by the District Court of Salt Lake County, Utah, for the alleged killing of J. S. Morrison, and his son, Arling Morrison, in Salt Lake County, Utah, on January 10, 1914, and of the affirmance of the judgment of conviction of said District Court by the Supreme Court of the State of Utah, hereby make appeal to your executive clemency on behalf of said Hillstrom, and request that you grant him a pardon, for the following reasons, to wit:

That the Hillstrom was denied by the judge of the said District Court of Salt Lake County that fair and impartial trial which is guaranteed to all citizens of the United States of the Constitution thereof, and the laws of the State of Utah, in that the said court denied to him the privledge of being defended by counsel of his own selection, or of conducting his own defense, and that he has therefore been deprived of the benefit of counsel.

Because of the conviction of said Hillstrom was obtained upon flimsy and wholly insufficient evidence, the said trial being a mockery of justice and the verdict rendered therin due wholly to prejudice prevailing in said Salt Lake County against Hillstrom because of his activity in the labor movement.