RI panel backs pardon of Irish man hanged in 1845

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — John Gordon, the last man executed in Rhode Island, can perhaps rest easier now that a state legislative committee has endorsed a bill seeking his pardon for a murder that many say the Irish immigrant did not commit.

The House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously Wednesday to advance a resolution urging Gov. Lincoln Chafee to pardon Gordon. Gordon, who was convicted of the 1843 killing of a wealthy and politically connected Rhode Island mill owner, was hanged in 1845 at age 29.

Historians now say the evidence against him was circumstantial and that his trial was tainted by widespread bigotry against Irish Catholics. The story of Gordon's death was …