This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/RgB.2ACE/607 Message Board Post: Maryville Times, (Blount Co. TN) Saturday, June 11, 1904: "Gov. Frazier, Saturday afternoon commuted the death sentence of Aris Smalling of Monroe County to life imprisonment. Smalling was convicted of the murder of Moses Kohler, a peddler, and was sentenced to be hanged. George Tipton was indicted jointly with Smalling for this murder, but he turned states evidence on a written agreement that his sentence should not be greater than life imprisonment. Smalling was convicted, and since then Gov. Frazier has respited him several times to await the result of Tipton’s trial. Finally, after several trials, Tipton was given a life sentence. The first jury which tried Tipton paid no attention to the agreement, and convicted him of murder in the first degree."