Escaped Convict Who Enlisted and Died in France To Be Pardoned, June 7, 1919

From the editorial page of the Hickory Daily Record, June 7, 1919

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.