Iowa Old Press

Davenport Daily Leader
Davenport, Scott, Iowa
Nov 17, 1903

HER SENTENCE HAD EXPIRED
QUESTION ARISES OVER COMMITMENT OF MRS. McDONNELL
Out on Parole but It Was Past the Time of her Release When She Committed Offense.

    A question has arisen over the authority of the county to send Mrs. McDonnell back to Mt. Pleasant inebriate asylum on the old committment and a nice question of the construction of the statuses has arisen.
    Mrs. McDonnell was sent to Mt. Pleasant September 30th of last year and was sentenced to one year in the inebriate asylum.
    Last spring she was released on parole, though she was not pardoned or her sentence commuted. The sentence would have expired if she remained at Mt. Pleasant September 30, and while she was out on parole, she violated none of the conditions up to that time.
    After her sentence would have expired, however, she became intoxicated and the officials are now trying to figure out whether they can send her back to finish the uncompleted sentences which she would have had to serve out had she not been paroled.
    The concensus of opinion seems to be that she cannot be sent back under the old charge and that she will have to be tried over again if she goes to the hospital.
    In the meantime she is still kept in jail and the officials are trying to devise some method of disposing of the case.

Submitted by: C.J.L.