Raleigh, Oct. 22—Application for the parole of Ida Bell Warren, only woman in the North Carolina prison to have been under sentence of death, has been received by Pardon Commissioner H. Hoyle Sink, who will await the return of Governor McLean before anything at all is done.
The plea for further clemency has been long overdue. While James H. Dodgen, attorney, lived in Raleigh he interested himself in Mrs. Warren, who had then served about 10 years. Mr. Dodgen managed a state weekly at that time and found it so much on his hands that he could not press the Warren case. Later he went to Florida and he is said to be one North Carolina who did not regret that change of residence.
Mrs. Warren was convicted in 1915 with Sam Christy, her paramour, of murdering her husband. Christy and Mrs. Warren slew the husband, hid his body in a trunk and threw it into a creek near Winston-Salem. Later Christy was arrested in Texas and brought back. He confessed the crime. Judge E. B. Cline tried the case and Attorney General T. W. Bickett argued the appeal for the state. Bickett, who afterwards became governor, strenuously opposed any clemency. Governor Craig heard the petition for clemency argued by Judge e. B. Jones and former Governor Cameron Morrison. Of all the appeals carried t ohim this more than any tortured him.
Finally, with sheer chivalry, he saved Mrs. Warren. The favoritism was too much for him, and he spared Christy. Both have made excellent prisoners and Mrs. Warren for years has been rated among the best prisoners there.
Governor Craig was much criticized for his course, but he found satisfaction in what he did. But gentle and forgiving as he and Bickett were, it is doubtful whether they would ever have yielded to further plea for clemency. The murder of Warren was peculiarly diabolical. Mrs. Warren’s sole motive appeared to be the riddance of herself in the hope of a new husband. They were too soon detected, however.
Pardon Commissioner Sink has been expecting this case more than a year. Doubtless it would have been here long ago had Jim Dodgen been in Raleigh to boost the paper. Governor McLean is generally against commutation of parole life termers who have been sentenced to die. The governor will be back next week and probably will act upon this case soon after his return.
From the front page of the Concord Daily Tribune, Oct. 22, 1926
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1926-10-22/ed-1/seq-1/
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