The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1888-07-25
BLACKWELL OR BROW n.
nm or Din N0T DETECTIVE JihfS
ALLOW ms ESCAPE


YESTERDAY morning Detective John /.
lame. was before the Police Court on a
warrant chargins that on the 20th day of
Inlv 1sss. John 7. James did unlawiuliy
and fclor.ouslr ail aud abe, william
blackwell. fugitive from justice, ana a
convio, Of felony 10 escape from Gus
todv
James bad been brought to the city
the preceding evening aad lodged IN lhe
station house. where he spent the night
he WAS represented by Messrs. John
Lyon and Jacob Cohen Colonel spots
wood WAS present for he Commonwealth.
Police Justice Cru,chheld not desiring TO
sit in the case. hc having taken some
rart i'm the matter. senior Magistrate
Holmes presided during the hearing
Policeman ! & Gibson was the nrst
witness He testified that he arrested
James ON board ihe Che tpcakc q ONO
RailNav train lust outside Of Newport
News while The train was coming 10
Richmond THAT Mr. james had bought
his own ticket 20 Richmond. but when
arrested said to the officer, eff YOU are
coinf, 10 arrest me and take me tO Rich
mona, YOU must pay NY i"t'f NNi'N'"t'
1n thc oilicer paid the money.
Justice Cruichicld was the next VII
ness lie stated that week before las
James appeared i'm his court ~ witness
a-ainst William Blackwell, charging hm
with being an escaped convict from
Franklin, Ky The witness committed
him 10 iail for ten days ou suspicion oi
enilt July Sth. about nlIhiiall james
cam To him al his residence and sall ne
would like to take Blackburn Rack 10
Eeutuck, Witness told him he had no
authority 10 deliver him mp nor James 20
tukc him back there being no rcquisi-
iioa. james said Blackburn was willing
to 90 with him
Witness then went 10 COloacl Spots
woods house with Jamt5, and conferred
with him. and Colonel Spolswood told
him to let the man go if il was volun
tarv net lie went with James 10 Jail.
aud there Blackwell said me was ready 10
go. James then gave receipt iOr hi-
BODY to Il 4 Garter, city sergeant, and
witness ordered his discharge from Gus
todv. md james and Blackwell left lie
rem incd al the jail % little while, and at
1920 left with Deputy Macon for Seven
tc,uth and Marshall 10 take the electric
car Learning thgt lhe Chesapeake q
ohio train would start AT 1890, me
walked mp 10 the ears but saw neither
James nor Blackwell The train pulled
oui. and presently n carriaee came
Campbell was there too. 4 hack cane
up aud some one said, Here they are.
Some one else said 20 bv the Norfolk x
81 rr1ft too lt4f
To reach thcdrpot The hack then started
of for Petersburg depot
Witness read tclegrams one from
Frankiori kv. signed t.. ii. Taylor
warden. 20 hold Blackwell, and another
TO send him on.
William Blackwell, ;he escaped con
Wet about whom all the fuss has bcen
made. was sent tor from Jail and placed
on the witness chair.
Mr. Lyon objected To Blackwclps tcsti
mony The Code, he stated, said that q
convict sentenced for felony must bt
either pdri0ncd or served out his punish
ment before he was q competent witness.
II he Is an escaped convict he cauno. les
tifv L. not an escaped convict then
there J. no case against james.
Cooae Spotswood said the fact that
Blackwell was an escaped convict re
mains 10 be proven, but he
has been arrested upon the ailcCa-
CATION that hc is an escaped convict
aud supposed 10 be in prison, and every
act he does lfter he leaves forms part
of the original escape, and he can testify
to his own escape and all the circum-
stances connected with it, for he has not
finally escaped until ne is actually out Of
danger oi rccapture.
Mr. Lyon said that even allowing this
TO be so. the Police Justice nor the lIust-
ing Court judge had no Jurisdiction un
der the Code i'm the matter. II can only
be tried In the Circuit Court of Rich.
mond. and the offense to enable the con
vict to testify must have happened in the
PenitentiSry
The Code of virginia does not refer 10
the pententiary az QueOec, Nova Scotia
or Kentucky. but the penitentiary in
Richmond, Virginia, alone. This IS Nlr
ginia Code 10 escape from Kentucky
prison is nOta crime in Virginia. He
may have murdered all the iailOrs there,
Yet Virginia had no more 10 do with IL
than Canada or Mexico, except as provided
In the l nllcO ciHlcs constitution, Wblch
says that when fugitive from justice Is
found in another State, that State
shall on the demand of the eXecu.
tive of the State in which the
crime was committed, deliver the
prisoner TO the State having Jurisdiction
The Code carries Out the provisions OF
the Constitution by saying that fugi
tive is arrested on suspicion, the Justice
shall commit him to Jail, &c, and write
letter 20 the Governor of Virginia de
failing ihe case, and the Governor Of
Virginia must then write To the GOV
ernOr OF Kentucky or other State. The
Justice did not write this letter, but on
the contrary, ON July 18Th actually dis
charged Blackwell from custody, both
orally and IN writing; and after Sergeant
Carter took a receipt for the body he did
not have Blackwell any longer in Gus.
todv Tne wealth must prove
that Blackwell is an escaped convict, and
he must gel the record first TO prove
that Blackwell was II convict and a wit
ness 10 identify the present man as the
one convicted,
Colonel Spolswood said that the bare
facts that he il CHARGED with being "A con