Birmingham state herald., 1896-02-07
GAN MAXWELL BE HELD 2.
Curious. Case of the Slayer of
 James B. RiCkeIIS. T : 
PRATT SHY OF ATTENTION
True Bills Returned by the Grand Jury-John MaxweII's Lawyers Fighting to Get Him Free.


 . Him Free.
 
 Steve Pratt, the alleged "gold brick man. against whom two charges have been returned by the grand jury. has had his bond fixed at the sum of $600O. He has not secured bail yet, and is still in jail. A State Herald reporter sought ah interview with Pratt yesterday af- ternoon, but Pratt declined to get within speaking distance, He was not in his cell having been allowed the privileges of the corridors The. warden allowed the reporter to enter the jail, but his eff forts towards meeting Pratt proved un- successful. There seems to be an un- derstanding among the prisoners, and when the reporter would reach one cor ner Pratt conveniently secreted himself in a distant corner of the jail The re- porter wished to question him in regard to the bond issue as well as to the prob- ability of securing bail on his own ac- count, but the final answer sent to the reporter that he wanted to play hush mouth" awhile might indicate that he is averse to saying anything against the powers that be.
 Andrew Jackson was fined $500 for car rying concealed weapons. He precipi- tated a row on Bessemer and Birming- ham dummy some time ago. ..
 The grand jury has returned the fol- lowing true bills:
 Lila Williams, receiving stolen prop erty.
 Will Howard, alias Heard, burglary and grand larceny. ..s Will Smith, alias Williams, same.
 Jim Wright, grand larceny.
 Dan Sullivan, burglary and grand lar- ceny.
 Will Keith, alias Will Daniels, same.
 Hanson Meredith, alias Will Johnson, same.
 Henry Sasseen, same.
 Henry Brooks, carrying concealed pis- Will Giles, grand larceny. c. F. HaZelton, same.' q Henry L. Brooks, assault to murder T Lucy Edwards, same. " n" Tom Martin and Joe Greenhouse, rob bery. M
 City Court. 1T c. c. Burson vs. Louisville and Nash vile railroad; on trial Burson alleges that he was hurt some time ago by onet of defendants trains at the Twenty" fourth street crossing. Attorney r. G Bowman, for the plaintiff, says the case will consume two or three days. Other cases set for the week were continuedy and the juries discharged, mn m
 Circuit Court 9s A mistral resulted in. the case of Rob-p ert H. Stokes vs Alabama Iron works.u Plaintiff was suing ' for the death ofo his son. minor alleged to have been killed while in defendants employ by the explosion of an emery wheel
 Probate Court. The much discussed and long pending Maxwell case is' still in the courts. It, be remembered that this case was re, gently tried in. the criminal court and the defendant acquitted on the charge ofs the murder of J. B. Rickells. On the trial of the case in the criminal court the defendant, in addition to his plea of mot guilty" interposed special plea of mot guilty by reason of insanity at the time of the commission of the act" Under the charge of the court and the law in such cases, the jury returned a special verdict saying: we, the Jury, find the defendant guilty of the act charged. but find that he was insane at the time of it's commission" This yer dict was returned on the 31st day of Jan uary. The court thereupon remanded the defendant to the custody of the sher- if, and on the 4th day of February, 1896, Judge Greene, the presiding judge of the criminal court. made an order in writing to the sheriff of the county directing him to deliver John T. Maxwell to the super intendent of the Brice Insane hospital at Tuskaloosa as criminal insane per son.
 On the 5th day of February Maxwell sued out a writ of habeas corpus before Hon. M. T. Porter judge of the probate court asking his discharge from the GUS tody of the sheriff on the ground that he Is now of sound mind.
 The contention of the state Is that the probate court has no jurisdiction to try the writ on the ground that exclusive jurisdiction to try such cases is vested in the circuit court for Tuskaloosa coun- tv, sitting in term time in said county, or before the chancellor of the chancery division in which Tuskaloosa is situated, sitting in term time, oT before com mission of lunacy established and ere ated by the legislature at the session of 1SSS-S9.
 This commission was appointed by Governor Seay soon after the passage of the act but none of the appointees quail flied and it has no legal existence. The petitioner Maxwell, contends that inas- much as this commission of lunacy Is not in existence, and as he is not now an inmate of the insane asylum that the conferring of the exclusive Jurisdiction in such cases on the circuit and chancery courts sitting in Tuska locsa county Is practical suspension of the writ of ha- beas corpus and in viola ton of the state constitution in that respect. and that if he can now show his sanity he is en- titled to his discharge under said writ by the probate court of this county. The writ will be heard today before Judge Porter.
 Attorney Charles G. Brown represents the petitioner and Solicitor Charles W. Ferguson will appear for the state. The state also contends that in the eyes of the law petitioner Is an inmate of the asylum at Tuskaloosa.