Pardoned, Joe Arridy

Colorado – Latest news, videos, and information- msnbc.com Sep 30, 2009 … Colorado Governor Bill Ritter has handed down the state’s first posthumous pardon to a developmentally disabled man, Joe Arridy, … www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33098067/ns/us_news – Cached

Joe Arridy, Disabled Man Executed In 1939, Granted Posthumous …

Jan 7, 2011 … Colorado Governor Bill Ritter (above) Pardoned A Disabled Man Who …. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/binta31/joe–arridy-disabled-man …
www.huffingtonpost.com/…/joe–arridy-disabled-man-e_n_806028.html – Cached

Petition Gov. Bill Ritter of Colorado to Pardon “Little Joe” Arridy

Posted in Reflets Sombres with tags Colorado territorial Prison, Dorty Drain, governor ritter, Joe Arridy, Pardon for Joe Arridy, Robert Perske on August 5, 2010 by buffalohair

I am forwarding this call for the Governor of Colorado to pardon *Joe Arridy, 23. It was drafted by **Robert Perske, writer, journalist and humanitarian. The petition respectfully requests the governor to pardon “Little Joe” Arridy posthumously for the crimes of rape and murder of a 15 year old girl, Dorothy Drain, on August 15, 1936. Sadly, Little Joe has long since been convicted and ultimately executed at Colorado Territorial Prison, Canyon City. The arrest, trial and execution of Joe were media events likened to a carnival in darkly festive flare. Socialites flocked to make an appearance at this depression era kangaroo court.

Little Joe was locked into a pre-pubescence world since he had the mentality of a 6 year old boy, innocent even in thought. Joe was the ideal suspect and detectives took full advantage of his naivete coercing a confession almost immediately. Being of Syrian decent added fuel to the community’s frenzied scorn as well. The media poisoned public opinion against Joe across the state with fabricated sensational tales that horrified and disgusted readers. They painted Little Joe as a vial and perverted killer of little girls. Joe was a dead man walking even before he was arrested. Guilt was already assumed. He was convicted and sentence to death. Then he was executed in the gas chamber on January 6, 1939 to the joy of cheering mobs, justice was served. They say Joe was smiling when he entered the death chamber for he truly was a child and could not comprehend the concept of his own death. In the evening after Joes execution even the hardest of convicts wept because of the injustice that shrouded the day. The bittersweet irony of Joe’s dark journey was the fact three months after his execution the true

killer of Dorothy Drain was arrested then confessed to the grizzly assault.