The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-04-10
IN PRISON BY ERROR.
LEE SERVED FOURTEEN YEARS WITH
OUT BENG CONVICTED.

/
Arrested In ISss on a Charge Of Murder
He Was Incarceratcd Found Guilty bat
New Trial Ordered Evidence Purely Cir
eumstaatial Now lie l. Free Again.
Maicr Lee, negro who Is now a
stalwart mar, hut was STRIPPING when
first incarccrated, has just been released
! from the Georgia state penitentiary, or
I more properly from the chain gang at
/ Hoodoo. in Johnson county, after u
term of IA years at hand labor 1t has
been found that his imprisonment was
due 20 an error
In the fall of 1852 Major Lee was
lad working in Bullock county on lit.
tie farm managed by n relative of the
same name. One day he and his cousin
Ebert Lee, accompanied the old man
10 Savannah 10 sell the crop of cotton
which they had grown on the fam.
After the cotton had been sold the old
man PIT the money into his pocket and
he and The two Toys started for hCme. |
That night they campcd about ten miles |
from the city, and on the following |
morning M0SCr appeared at the house of |
a baCkWCCds farmer and reported that |
somebody had attacked and murdered |
his uncle during the night and had |
beaten his cousin Ebert on the head !
until be was almost dead. An invCsti- |
CATION revealed the fact that the body
IF the dead man had been robbed The |
man was still alive, but was
lot able TO give any account of the at.
ack. Major Lee claimed to have been
by the noise of the attack |
md to have fed, thus escaping with his
ife.
Major Lee was arrested and carried
o Savannah Jail, where he was kept
Until his trial came off. The court APP
ointed Colonel Falligant TO defend
i'm, and the jury brought in IA verdict
I guilty, with recommendation to
mercy, which, under the laws of Geor-
III, saved him from the gallows A
notion for new trial was made, and
he case was taken TO the supreme court
II appeal. That was in 1888, and soon
fterward Major Lee was turned over
the lessees of the state penitentiary
nd sent to the coal mines at Cole CITY
} begin serving life sentence. In the
leantime the supreme court granted
zee new trial Oh the ground that the
violence lii the case, which was purely
lrcumstaEtial, was insufficient to war
ant a conviction.
Colonel Falligant was elevated to the
enc II, and new counsel was appointed
defend Lee when the new trial should
ome of. But weeks heightened into
'ontEs AID months into years, and Lee
)ntinnod tn delve in the mines ut Cole
lty Fer = years he remained there.
Though lie VAS entitled TO new trial.
ld he would have been there until
oW had net The lcssccs of the coal mine
iopclty failed 10 pay certain fines inn
1Eod upon them 10y the governor,
hlch resulted IL tie unLulmcnt Ct
leir contract with tie state, and TIE
)nyicts IN their charge were turned
yer e. another lessee. g,.d L. V;.etc-
owed from LIS GUErCcu Jr'CT~ir.r,l
} tell at IA sawmill at Hoodco That
as done last year aud Lee rcmain, q
tie saw Dtil until tie case was lul.
rtl.od in the clerk 5 Cflicc i'll Savannah,
nd II caused Il sensation The princi-
al keeper Cf the penitcntialy at once
rdered james, the lessee III charge Of
oodoo camp, to send Lee to Savannah
e was kept III Jail few days, and
udge Galloway was requested to call "A
'ecial session Of the superior court to
i've Lee new trial, as Judge FALL.
ant was disqualified.
On the call Of the case there was no
rosecutor, as those interested in the
lse had all died or moved away, and
ee was released from custody after
aving served for IA years in the chain
ang for a crime of which he has never
cen proved guilty. Under the peniten-
AIRY regulations this amounts to a 90
ear term.
When first released, Lee did not seem
know what to do with himself. He
ld been cut off from all association
sih the outside world so long that be
,uld scarcely realize what freedom
cant. With his aged father he left the
ty and will now take up the old rou.
ne OF plantation work where he left
I many years ago. -New York Sun
Se