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7 West 8th street,
New York, N.Y.,
September 15, 1915.

Sir:

Unless you, sir, Chief Executive of the State
of Utah, interfere there will be shot to death in Salt Lake City
on October 1st one Joseph Hillstrom (Joe Hill). This man has
been convicted of murdering J. S. Morrison and Arling Morrison,
at Salt Lake City, January 10th 1914.

I have gone carefully over the evidence offered by the
District Attorney who prosecuted this case and I am familiar with
the policy of the defense. From years of experience I arrive
at the conclusion, after carefully pondering this testimony, that
Joe Hill has not been regularly convicted. That is: I believe I
see where Justice has miscarried in his case.

I believe it is a fundamental of American jurisprudence that
a citizen is innocent until proven guilty. The burden of the conviction
rests in all cases upon the prosecution. The District Attorney
must not only show why the defendent is the only person who could
have committed the crime in question but he must also show why the
defendent is not innocent of the charge upon which he is before the
court.

I believe that the District Attorney who prosecuted Joe Hill
has failed to show that Joe Hill actually committed the crime for
which what was admittedly a biased jury found him guilty,

I also believe that Joe Hill's defense was poorly managed,
and that the defendent should have been permitted to select his own
attorney; you will recall that the presiding magistrate refused to
permit him this Constitutional privilege.

I believe Joe Hill is innocent of the murder of these two
men. I believe he has no evidence against him but that he was shot
in some manner upon the same night on which the murder was committed.
To my mind this is very flimsy evidence to send a man to death.

Sir, to me Life is so sacred a thing that I would not dare to
even think of taking a life. I have seen men die, - many of them, -
and God knows it is the most terrible thing in the world to die. We
all love life so much, - its associations, its poetry, its dreams.