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Former Governor Lawrence M. Judd says that he "acted under the heaviest pressure" in commuting the prison terms of the four slayers in the Massie case.
Judd’s comments, made in an interview with the Star-Bulletin and in his to-be-published memoirs, broke a self-imposed silence on the case, which rocked the Islands in the 1930s.
The former governor said he decided to speak up because of what he termed some inaccuracies in three books published on the Massie case.
Briefly, the case involved the claim of Thalia Fortescue Massie, the wife of a Navy officer, that she was raped in September, 1931. When a jury failed to reach a verdict, one of the five Island defendants was killed by Mrs. Massie’s husband, mother, and two sailors.
Lieutenant Massie, Mrs. Gracie Fortescue and the two sailors were tried for murder. Mainland newspapers and congressmen were outraged. The Territory was pictured as unsafe for white women.
The four were convicted of manslaughter, and extreme political pressure was applied to Governor Judd to pardon all four.
"I refused pardons, but under pressure from Congress, commuted the sentences to one hour in custody of the Territorial High Sheriff," Judd recalled. …
"… I acted … against my better judgment. Had I possessed facts of which I learned later, I doubt that I would have commuted the sentences. That would have flung the issue straight back into the hands of an infuriated Congress.
"Punitive legislation against Hawaii was being considered in that body at that time.
"Had I not acted as I did, I believe that Congress might have changed our form of government and placed us under a commission.
"In that event, Hawaii might not now be a State of the Union."
