The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-04-25
FIVE MUST HANG
SCREvEN COUNTY MURDERERs
WILL BE HANGED.
NEW TRIALS REFUSED. THEM.
SUPREME COURT SAYS THEY WE'RE
LEGALLY CONVICTED.

Arnold Augustus, Andrew Davis, Bill
Hudson, Sam Baldwin and Richard
Sanders the nien-Providence Alone
Can Now Stop the Execution.
Condemned Negroes Are in Chat
ham County Jaii-All Hope for Life
Is AbandOned-Were to Have Been
Hanged Last Month-AIIeged Mem
bers of the "Knights of the Arch
er" Ambushed and Killed Fill
more Harrington and Milton
Mears-Capt. Jesse Wade Was Bad
ly Shot mt the Same Time-Men Ad-
init That They Fired but say Guns
Were Pointed Skyward-Large
Standing Rewards for Arrest of
Other Members of Screven County's
Black Malta.
Unless Providence interferes the five
Screven county murderers, who have
spent the greater portion of their time,
since their capture, in Chatham county
Jail, will go to their death on the gallows.
Mr.. Raiford Falligant who represented
the negroes, received a telegram yester-
day announcing that the Supreme Court
has affirmed the lower court.
The prisoners are Arnold Augustus. An
drew Davis Bill Hudson Sam Baldwin
and Richard Sanders, and they were con-
victed of the murder of Fillmore Harrison
and Milton Mears during last October.
The men were sentenced to hang on
March 70, and, as will be remembered.
were taken to Sylvania on the day before
by Sheriff Thompson and force of depu-
ties. The military had to be called out
to protect the prisoners, their execution
having ben delayed by the appeal for a
new trial.
All the justices concurred in the refusal
of a new trial, and the negroes will be
legally executed. The remitters will have
to be sent to the clerk of the court and
an order will be signed making the judg-
ment of the higher court that of the lower
one. The prisoners will then be taken
back to Sylvania and resentenced.
At the trial of the case the state con-
tended that the men were a part of an or
ganized band, known as the knights of
Archer" whose purpose and intent was
" eAleTHiHdte the whites. Death TO
White Men" was their alleged motto and
they are said to have had a regular char
ter.
Harrison and Mears, accompanied by
capt. Jesse Wade, went to arrest the son
OF a negro named Zanders. The lad was
wanted by magistrate on trivial
charge, and the officers went to the house
at night, not anticipating any trouble in
making the arrest. They were caught off
their guard, and the story of their am
bush has been printed several times in
the Morning News. Harrison and Mears
were killed, and Capt Wade managed to
escape with several of the negroes bullets
in his body. All of the members of the
black malta escaped with the exception of
the five, with the death sentence now
hanging over their heads. The other
members of the band are scattered
throughout Georgia, Florida and South
Carolina, and there are large rewards
standing for their capture.
The men now in jail in this city admit
that they were present on the night Har-
rison and Mears were cowardly slain, but
deny that they fired any of the fatal
shots. One of the men admitted on the
witness stand at the trial in Sylvania
that he and his companions were present
and fired, but declared that they shot in
the air and not at the white men. The
tragedy stirred up Screven county, and
the execution of the negroes will no doubt
cause a great deal of excitement