This document is President Ulysses S. Grant’s commutation of Oscar Snow’s sentence from death to life of hard labor at the Illinois State Penitentiary at Joliet.
In 1875, Oscar Snow was sentenced to death by Judge Isaac Parker for committing murder. During this time there was no higher court an individual could appeal to if convicted in the Western District of Arkansas. If an appeal was desired, the convicted must appeal directly to the President of the United States.
Adhered to the document is a certificate signed by the Warden of the Penitentiary, R.W. McClaughny, stating he had “Received from J. T. Fagan…the body of Oscar Snow” signifying Snow had been turned over to the warden. U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Arkansas James T. Fagan then penned a list of all the costs he incurred in transporting Snow from Fort Smith, AR, to Joliet, IL. Fagan was owed a total of $137.
