The fate of Benjamin Mallow, the seventeen-year-old boy from Brownsville who is sentenced to die on marcch 1-Purim, depends upon a message from Governor Lehman.
Mallow, sentenced to death by Judge Franklin Taylor, was convicted for having killed a shopkeeper who resisted his attemptat hold-up last year. The case was taken to the Court of Appeals which affirmed the decision, and he was sentenced to execution during the week of February 26 At Sing Sing the day of the week cchosen was Thursday, which is Purim.
It was only after sentense had been handed down, declared John E. Brandfon, the boy’s attorney, that Mallow’s real age was discovered. Research in the files of St. John’s Hospital showed that he had been born on May 16, 1916 making him 16 at the time of the crime.
Mr. Brandfon told the Jewish Daily Bulletin that the fate of the youthful slayer depends upon a decision of Governor Lehman, whom he saw last Tuesday. The decision has not yet been made, he said. All that Mallow can hope for, deciared Brandfon, is that his sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment.
In Bronwnsville there is strong feeling against an execution on Purim, a day of feasting and merriment.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
