Forney Williams
Governor Bickett of course will grant a pardon to Forney
Williams, the Robeson county youth convicted of burglary and sentenced to 15
years, who was killed in France while fighting with the American army. There are
two sides to this question, but we rather inclined to the view of the governor
that the boy’s mammy should get the money. The boy did not fight like a
convict, though he was one, but like a soldier, and he died for his country.
The other side is that almost any young man in prison for a crime would take
chances in the war, hoping if he survived to receive a pardon and have his sins
against society forgiven. Williams escaped from the penitentiary and joined the
army in St. Louis. The governor will give him a post mortem pardon and whether
is family receives the insurance, his mother will have the satisfaction of
knowing that North Carolina, through its executive, forgave the wrong he
committed, and which he gave his life to expiate.
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