Commutation of Sentence
Title
Commutation of Sentence
Creator
Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924
Identifier
WWP15057
Date
1919 April 22
Description
Woodrow Wilson grants an officicial commutation of sentence to Fernando R. Ludicke, convicted of violating the Espionage Act.
Source
Gilder Lehrman Collection, New York Historical Society, New York
Text
WOODROW WILSON,
President of the United States of America,
Whereas Fernando Robert Edward Ludicke was convicted in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, under the name of Robert Edwards, of violating Section 3, Title I, of the Espionage Act of June 15, 1917, as amended, and on September eighteenth, 1918, was sentenced to imprisonment for one year and six months in the Maryland State Penitentiary, at Baltimore, Maryland; and, Whereas it has been made to appear to me that the said Fernando Robert Edward Ludicke, alias Robert Edwards, is a fit object of executive clemency:Now, therefore, be it known, that I, WOODROW WILSON , President of the United States of America, in consideration of the promises, divers other good and sufficient reasons me thereunto moving, do hereby commute the sentence of the said Fernando Robert Edward Ludicke, alias Robert Edwards, to expire at once.In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name and caused the seal of the Department of Justice to be affixed.
Done at the District of Columbia this twenty-second day of April, in the year of our Lord, One Thousand Nine Hundred and Nineteen, and of the Independence of the United States, the OneHundred and Forty-third.
By the President:
Attorney General.
President of the United States of America,
Whereas Fernando Robert Edward Ludicke was convicted in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, under the name of Robert Edwards, of violating Section 3, Title I, of the Espionage Act of June 15, 1917, as amended, and on September eighteenth, 1918, was sentenced to imprisonment for one year and six months in the Maryland State Penitentiary, at Baltimore, Maryland; and, Whereas it has been made to appear to me that the said Fernando Robert Edward Ludicke, alias Robert Edwards, is a fit object of executive clemency:Now, therefore, be it known, that I, WOODROW WILSON , President of the United States of America, in consideration of the promises, divers other good and sufficient reasons me thereunto moving, do hereby commute the sentence of the said Fernando Robert Edward Ludicke, alias Robert Edwards, to expire at once.In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name and caused the seal of the Department of Justice to be affixed.
Done at the District of Columbia this twenty-second day of April, in the year of our Lord, One Thousand Nine Hundred and Nineteen, and of the Independence of the United States, the OneHundred and Forty-third.
By the President:
Attorney General.
Original Format
Certificate
Citation
Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924, “Commutation of Sentence,” 1919 April 22, WWP15057, Gilder-Lehrman Institute for American History Woodrow Wilson Documents, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.