The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-02-21
HAS SERVED Fifteen YEARS.
GRANTED HIM A NEW TRIAL.

ed in 1883, But Lee Has Been in the
Penitentiary Ever since-Judge
FaIIIgant Was His COunseI-COn-
victcd on CircumstnntIaI Evidence.
His Case VIII he Taken UD and
Disposed of at the Next Term.
Judge Galloway 10 Come Down to
Try II.
What is perhaps the most peculiar case
in the criminal records of Chatham coun-
ty if not of the state, has just come to
light here.
More than fifteen years ago. 14-year-old
negro boy, Major Lee, was tried here, and,
on circumstantial evidence alone, was
convicted of the murder OF Ebert Lee,
white man, with a recommendation to the
extreme mercy of the court. He
was sent to the state peni-
Tertiary for life. but was granted
new trial on the broad ground that the
verdict was contrary to the law and the
evidence.
This proceeding was simple enough and
there would be nothing extraordinary
about it, but for the fact that Lee has
never had a new trial, and has remained
in the penitenitary fifteen years when the
supreme court practically stated that he
was not guilty unless the state could pro-
duce new and stronger evidence against
him than what was submitted at the time
of his trial
The history of the case is replete with
interesting incidents. Lee was tried be-
fore Judge w. B. Fleming in 1882 and was
defended by Judge Robert Falligant, now
on the superior court bench, who was APP
pointed by the court. Judge, Falligant
fa1 On, III lnf1, 49, 81,
though he secured a new trial did not
bring it up at that time.
Maj. Lee who was then a boy of IA
years, was indicted by the grand jury OF
the superior court for the murder of Ell
bert Lee, alleged to have been committed
Dec. "A, 1880. The indictment was found
June 10, 1881 John c. Rowland being fore
man of the grand jury. The trial did not
take place until March "a, 1882.
The evidence for the state showed that
on Dec. IA, 1880 Ebert Lee and his cousin,
j. b, Lee, with Major Lee, the little ne
gro, mad come to Savannah from Bulioch
county for the purpose of selling some
cotton, and after doing so were returning
home, when they camped by the road
side, about ten miles outside of Savannah.
J. Is. Lee aWoke in the morning, at a
time which he supposed to be about day
or little before, but as the moon was
| shining, he could not be positive as to
| the time he felt that he was injured,
| but at the time could not tell how. He
| saw Major standing In about the same
| position before the camp fire in which he
| had been when he retired. Lee asked him
| II he had fed the horses, and upon re-
| ceiving negative answer, asked him to
1 throw them bundle of fodder, as he was
| BAD or. He also saw Ebert Lee, and
| noticed that one of his eyes appeared to
! be hurt and seemed to have been bleed
| ing, as his clothes We're also bloody. Ell
| bert Lee started in the direction of the
| railroad track, which was near by, and
| J. Il. Lee told Major to catch him and not
| after him, and J. b. Lee could recollect
| no more until some time afterward, when
aid arrived and he was carried away.
| j. b. Lee did not know whether Major
| had slept that night or not There was an
old cover near the fire when he became
! conscious as though Major had dropped IL
| there. He remembered seeing another
| party camped a short distance away, va
| riously estimated at from fifteen to thir
| ty yards. He stated that he saw them like
shadows, and that they disappeared from
| his sight
The little negro, it appears according to
| his statement, and partially substantiated
| by other circumstances, remained there
| bathing the wounds of the injured men all
night. and when morning came called a
| party who was passing in a wagon. He
| told the party about an hour after the two
| Lees laid down the night before, he was
sleeping and heard J. b. Lee call to Ebert
! Lee to help him, but was not awakened
! until some one stepped over him, when he
| got up and found Gilbert Lee was badly
| injured. He said he saw large black me-
! gro with a bundle in one hand and a large
| crooked stick in the other who went off to-
wards the railroad track and after reach
/
| some one talking in that direction.
The boy also stated that the neighbor-
ing camp was pitched shortly after this
was done, that there was a man, a woman
and two boys at it, and that he did not
! go over to tell them bout it because he
| was afraid of the woman. After Ebert
| Lee was hurt, he said, the deceased got
| up and went to certain tree and fell
! beside it. He searched Lees pockets. be-
| him, but found none, though he found
some money in j. b. Lees pockets and
returned It to him when he became con-
scious. He had seen them count their
money the night before, and he also told
| about having washed Ebert Lees head
| when he found him wounded
! The little negro said he thought the
! murder must have been committed with
the Lees AK, as there was blood upon
| il, and upon being told that there was
none upon it when II was found, he said
| he had washed IL off. 1t was believed
! that the blood dripped from one of the
Lees wounds onto the AK, which was lying
1 near where they were.
| The two Lees were brought to Savan-
nah that morning by passing wagons, and
| Ebert Lee died in the Savannah hospl-
| tai the day of his arrival here. The
| physician who examined the wounds stat
| ed that Elbert Lee must have been struck
| with a blunt instrument. such as a stick,
| and that If J. b. Lee was struck with the
/ ak, II must have been with the fiat Side
| of 1t. as neither the dun or the blunt
edge would have made wounds of that
The little negro came with the wagon
ers to Savannah, and afterward returned
| with them to Bulloch county. Two of
| them stated that he was quite silent I'M
| til the return trip, when he became rather
| laxative, and then became quiet again on
| nearing home.
when he got to Bullock county some
| body directed suspicion against Major
| and the suggestion seemed to take like
wild fire. So strong became the sus-
| picion, which had never arisen until that
| time that he was arrested and sent back
| to Savannah In charge of a constable. on
| the way down 20 Savannah the constable
| oxtorted confession from him upon the
| threat that he would throw him IN the
Ogeechee river and drown him unless he
| told him about the crime. This confess
| sion was ruled out Of the evidence on the
trial by Judge Fleming on motion of Capt.
| Falligant.
The jury after being out three days and
| three nights brought in a verdict of guilty
| with a recommendation to the extreme
| mercy of the court. This was in March
| 1852. A representative OF the Morning
| News saw one of the jurors yesterday
and learned that on the first ballot the
| jury stood eleven to one for acquittsl
| but that on recharge by the court and
| on the strength of a talk given by another
| juror. still well known Savannahian the
other jurors came over and brought in
II