| Summary |
"Joseph Smith and Morris Preston were co-defendants wrongly convicted on May 9, 1907 charges related to the murder on March 10, 1907 of a restaurant owner in the mining town of Goldfield, Nevada. Smith was paroled in 1911 and died in 1935. Preston was paroled in 1914 and sought, but was unsuccessful at being granted a pardon before his death in 1924. Smith and Preston were posthumously pardoned by Nevada's Board of Pardons in 1987 based on new evidence of their innocence in a book about their case -- "The Ignoble Conspiracy - Radicalism on Trial in Nevada," by Sally Zanjani and Guy Louis Rocha (Reno, University of Nevada Press, 1986). 14 relatives of Smith's were present at the announcement of the men's pardon. Morris Preston was also known as Morrie." |