Biography
David T. Blodgett was from Des Moines, Iowa. David T. Blodgett was indicted for circulating a speech by Senator Thomas E. Watson of Georgia that criticized the conscription law. Convicted and sentenced to twenty years in prison for anti-war writings, Blodgett served in Atlanta and Leavenworth Penitentiaries from January 11, 1918, to January 7, 1922. At Leavenworth Penitentiary he had a breakdown and was transferred to St. Elizabeth's Hospital for the Insane on January 4, 1919. On February 25, 1920, after being confined at St. Elizabeth's for over a year, Blodgett was transferred to Atlanta Penitentiary. Outraged by the treatment meted out to Blodgett, Senator Watson introduced a bill in the Senate on October 20, 1921, calling for Blodgett's release. Blodgett's sentence was commuted on January 7, 1922.
The presidential-clemency table in the 1921 Senate amnesty hearings records a sentence imposed January 5, 1918: Twenty years. Commuted December 6, 1920 to eight years, making him eligible for parole; eligibility is not actual release. A pardon, commutation, nominal expiration or parole eligibility is not itself evidence of the day of physical release; the imposed or reduced term is not a measured time served.
Amnesty and Pardon for Political Prisoners, 1921 Senate hearings, printed page 193.
