Sunday, May 24, 2009

Homemade Get Out of Jail Free Card

D. W. Boyer, below, seems likely to have been David Washington Boyer, Jr., son of David and Nancy Boyer, who are not related to me. The 1910 Census shows him safely still in prison in Nashville. I was not able to find, on a quick search, what became of him after his new sentence described here.

Atlanta Constitution, April 26, 1900, page 9:

DENIED HABEAS CORPUS WRIT.
Judge Childress in the Case of D.W. Boyer at Nashville

Nashville, Tennessee, April 25. – (Special.) – Judge Childress today refused to grant a writ of habeas corpus in the case of D.W. Boyer. This is a unique case, in which new points are involved. Boyer murdered is father in Cocke county in 1891, threw his body in a sinkhole, forged deeds to his property, and said his father had gone west. When the body was found Boyer was arrested and sent to the penitentiary for ten years. With outside assistance he forged petitions, letters and even forged court seals on forged papers, on which Governor Turney granted a pardon. The news of the pardon brought vigorous protests from Cocke county from the very men whose names had been forged. Governor Turney undertook to revoke the pardon and Boyer, being captured in Memphis, was returned to the penitentiary after a brief absence.

Judge Childress decided today that if the allegations of fraud and deceit were sustained the pardon was absolutely void. Attorneys for Boyer will appear.

Atlanta Constitution, December 4,  1901, page 1:

TEN YEARS FOR FORGER BOY.
Sent Up on One Charge, Released on Another.

Newport, Tenn. December 3 – Wash Boyer, of Cooke [sic] county, who succeeded in securing his release for the state penitentiary in 1896 by means of papers alleged to have been forged by himself, has been sentences to ten years in prison. The sentence is for the alleged forgery of deeds to the property of his father, whom he is charged for having killed.

The supreme court held that Boyer could not be indicted for the forgery of the papers securing his pardon, as none of the persons whose names were forged were injured thereby.  

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