Albert T. Patrick (February 26, 1866 – February 11, 1940) was a lawyer who was convicted and sentenced to death at

Sing Sing Sing Sing Correctional Facility, formerly Ossining Correctional Facility, is a maximum-security prison operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in the village of Ossining, New York. It is about north of ...

for the murder of his client

William Marsh Rice William Marsh Rice (March 14, 1816 – September 23, 1900) was an American businessman who bequeathed his fortune to found Rice University in Houston, Texas. Rice was murdered by his valet Charles F. Jones while sleeping. The murder was pa ...

Case

Patrick was born in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

on February 26, 1866. He was charged with conspiring to murder Rice on 24 September 1900, convicted on 26 March 1902 and sentenced to be electrocuted. His appeals of the conviction — and his filing of a formal complaint against the practice of solitary confinement — delayed the execution of the sentence.TWENTY-SIX MONTHS IN THE DEATH HOUSE
in ''

the Tacoma Times ''The Tacoma Times'' was a newspaper published in Tacoma, Washington from 1903 to 1949. It was founded by E. W. Scripps, with editorial personnel taken from ''the Seattle Star''.Chronicling America ''Chronicling America'' is an open access, open source newspaper database and companion website. It is produced by the United States National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), a partnership between the Library of Congress and the National Endo ...

) In 1906, Governor of New York Frank W. Higgins commuted his sentence to life imprisonment. Doubts about the evidence caused the Governor

John Alden Dix John Alden Dix (December 25, 1860 – April 9, 1928) was an American businessman and politician who served as 38th Governor of New York from January 1911 to January 1913. A native of Glens Falls, New York, Dix attended Cornell University befo ...

to pardon him in 1912. In 1930 he was disbarred and the disbarment was upheld by the

New York State Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...

. It was said that the conduct of the case during the 12 years between being charged and being pardoned cost Patrick and his friends $162,000. Patrick died in Tulsa, Oklahoma on February 11, 1940.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Patrick, Albert T 1866 births 1940 deaths Inmates of Sing Sing American lawyers American people convicted of murder American prisoners sentenced to death Recipients of American gubernatorial clemency Recipients of American gubernatorial pardons People convicted of murder by New York (state) Prisoners sentenced to death by New York (state)