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Sentenced to hang logger reprieved - The Free Press Turns 115 years Old

Sentenced to hang logger reprieved - The Free Press Turns 115 years Old

February 9 1950

Free Press Files

Erik V. Backstrom, a 52-year-old logger of the Cranbrook district, who was sentenced to hang following his trial at Cranbrook last August, received a reprieve and his sentence reduced to then years’ imprisonment. The murder charge was reduced to man slaughter by Chief justice Gordon Sloan.

The Chief Justice told Backstrom in sentencing him to the penitentiary term: “If it were not for errors made in the charge to the jury at your trial, you would not have escaped the gallows.” Backstrom was convicted of murder in the death of a fellow logger at the lumber camp during a quarrel, and originally sentenced to be hanged on January 27.

Messrs. Mitchell & Chandler, Fernie barristers, conducted the defence for Backstrom.

For more great stories that ran in The Free Press in the past 115 years http://issuu.com/thefreepress/docs/115_the_free_press/1