Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1893-10-13
LAFFERrY,s VOICE.
HE CRrEs ALOUD AaAINsr THE v1R
GINA LAWS.


lie CRrEs ALouD AoAINsT THE vIR
GINA LAWS.
= In the Richmond Christian Advo
cate, Rev. DIR. Lafferty has the fol
lowing editorial under the heading
The Hatching House of Riots
In Amelia county, the centre OF al
old conservative civilization. negro
was last week hung by mob for VIC
lating white girl of twelve years
old, mud of respectable linouge.'
The story is told by u careful and
cultured correspondent from Amelia
to the Richmond Times. It seems
TINT the crime had baen committed
more than q year ago, and no punish
ment had been inflicted. Whys Not
from any doubt of his guilt or fair
ness OF trial. Negroes were on the
jury that convicted him. The Court
of Appeals sot aside tho verdict be
cause deputy sheriff failed to sign
the name of the sheriff to his .sreturu
Of the writ OF venire facias." So the
burly, black brute hnd another triul
by reason of q trivial matter of form
not at all connected with tho guilt or
innocence of tho prisoner. The un.
speakable villain was convicted q SEQ
ond time. And then tho Circuit
Court "set aside the verdict and
granted new trial" because s.lhe
Clerk" who is both County and Cir.
cult Clork, "signed tho writ, as Clerk
of tho County instead of calling him
self the Circuit Clork-a petty tech.
nicality.
For the third time the hapless girl
must be brought before tho sturing
crowd of tho court house and forced
to tell the revolving story. On the
first trial the twice condemned crimi.
nal denied the whole affair; but EN-
boldened by the Court of Appeals
she changed his story, and alleged
the consent of this twelve year old
child" Aud on his third trial his
white lawyers had two or three ne
groes ready to swear "they had also
been intimate with her." Consider
That this sluckless victim of savage
list 10 OF .'ln6st respectable liueae e."
yet to be bullieds Id coart these
buck ne egroes an q cliar led With ibes
ing taeis rostitn tnte f,I,iSi rs Is iii Viiginla
The patience oi .Ss. 81 I. ,aopie gast
out, and the beast, twice s6HsIyyls ds,iy
was hung.
A system of judicature that fu~.
nishes new trials to condemned cul-
prits, guilty of enormous aud nbhor.
rent crimes, on triiling inforinality
is curse. 1t is the court and the
code that breed mobs and lynching.
To tho plain citizen the "new trials
granted TO notorious criminals mean
TINT our system protects, not pun
ishes, offenders. The outcry against
"mob law" by mon who never raise a
finger to abolish the abortions of
justice, deserves contempt. Soizing
men and hanging them without trial
is wrong. What shall be said of men
ut the bar and on the bench Two bavo
no vulgar prejudice against honora
BILE counselors) who will champion n
system that obstructs justice, favors
scoundrels, annuls the two unani
nous DEGREES OF juries, as in Amelia,
on the mere flaw of n copyist? How
vicious is court practice which irri-
tates our people, abuses the innate
sense of justice, matches mobs, insti-
gates lynching
The clerks and sheriffs of Amelia,
whose alleged error of n pen in some
legal paper (having no bearing what
ever on the merit of tho casc) are
vouched for as "of the best officials
in the State" So it is confessed that
our legal contrivance to secure pun.
ishment of villains is so tangled and
kinked that practiced and expert
scribes, in spite of care and skill, may
draw document with some quirk at
the wrong place, which courts rule
as reasons why condemned negro
ravishers shall be kept from the gal
lows, and given another and another
chance to escape deserved death.
In a primitive state of society, the
next of kin avenged a crime without
delay AS civilization advanced, men
agreed to foreso this personal inflic.
ton of punishment, upon the cove
nant that the State would surely,
fully and promptly mete out justice
to criminals. When courts, the agent
of society, default to the contract to
give scoundrels their dpes of scourge
or halter, then men resume their
original rights to see that felons do
not fail of their merited punishment.
Lax administration of justice breeds
execution of offenders by tho people.
The Virginia legal machinery re.
tains thousand and one obstruc
lions TO swift and certain assertions
of right. We are vexed with ancient,
complicated, dilatory processes and
forms, discarded long ago even in
the English courts. Chief Justice