OPINION

OLD NEWS: In crime-weary 1920s Arkansas, 2 governors let exonerated man linger in prison

Lester E.A. Yeager, convict trusty at The Walls, photographed by the Arkansas Gazette in 1926. (Democrat-Gazette archives)
Lester E.A. Yeager, convict trusty at The Walls, photographed by the Arkansas Gazette in 1926. (Democrat-Gazette archives)


Reading 100-year-old editions of Arkansas newspapers, Old News stumbles across extraordinary ordinary lives. One such case is L.E.A. Yeager, former lawman. Yeager spent five years in prison for a crime he didn't commit — because two governors didn't want to be seen as soft on crime.

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