The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-07

The clerk read the amendment as
 follows: Amend Section 9 in line 2 | after the word information" insert the
 following, except when the felony has
 been committed and the grand jury al
 It's first term thereafter fails to find Q
 Dill of indictment, the court may order
 such prosecution"
 Mir. Oates-I will briefly explain that
 amendment After the insertion of
 these words, the gentlemen win see in
 the second line that no person shall
 for any indictible offense. be proceeded
 against criminally by information; then
 follows. except certain cases. This
 amendment is except when . felony
 has been committed, and the grand jury | fail to find an indictment at the first ! term thereafter. Then 1t will read, | and except in cases arising in the military and volunteer forces" etc. The reason why I offer this amend ment. gentlemen of the Convention, is | that the grand jury is supposed to be the fountain of administrative justice, l and our Constitutions from the first having required that felonies or charges of felonies must pass to the grand jury and by that body an indictment be re- turned before one could be put upon his | trial on such a serious charge. That l was conceived and intended to protect men against fictitious charges of such grave offenses. But what Is the condt- ton today? It Is a notorious fact that in more localities than one in the State | of Alabama bribery is at times prac- | ticed upon this body in order that ras- calls may escape punishment. Cases have come within my knowledge in
 more counties than one where. under our law. the grand jury. you know ha ropoposad 0f fifteen men and 1t requires twelve of them to concur and find a bill. and where a murder has been committed and person charged herewith has friends and means which can be used. 1t has been found that they have succeeded in obtaining a sympathy and inaction. or rather a negative action upon the part of enough of the grand jury to reduce | the number who are disposed to find a true bill. andnone can be found. and then the greatest of crimes goes un- | whipped of justice. Now how are you going to remedy 1t? It is . great evil. and if any gentleman in this Conyen- ton will show mo a better way to remedy it I will cheerfully support 1t. Why. gentlemen. it has been the cus- tom. or rather 1t has grown into a practice, that wherever a man who has any friends or any money. has mur- dedred nobody but negro. there Is scarcely any danger of his being in- dicted. Step by step crime always pro- gresses until we see instances now
 where a white man has murdered a white man and in more cases than one
 where the grand jury refused to find bill.
 Mir. Barefeld-I would like to ask question.
 The President pro tem.-win the gen.
 tleman consent to be interrupted?
 MT. Oates-Certainlv.
 Mr Barefield-I would like to ask the gentleman if a Judge Is any better morally than the citizens that compose the iuriesof the county. and if . Judge could not be bribed about as easy as twelve men. or as eighteen men who are supposed at least to be good citi- zens of the county?
 MT. Oates-If he can. Mr. President, he ought to be impeached. and if not the good citizens in the community ought to rise and kick him out of there. If that is the kind of the Judges you have, farewell to the administration of justice and triumph of law. Now, gen. tlernen. I have not the time to give you my observations in extenso upon this subject. It Is not one that is new
 W AAs~' h&NS OGGn oDbVTVIIlk lI some time. and it Ia a growing evil. How can you remedy 1t, that is the question. How can you? Now I could mention instances. I could give you names and state to you cases where this has occurred of a horrifyinK char acter. but that l presume is not nec- essarw to impress you with the mipor- tance of 1t. Where have heard the evidence adduced in one or two eases myself. case of willful murder. mur der in the first degree, and grand jury after grand jury sat there and although the evidence was presented to them and not questioned no bill was ever re- turned. When did any of you ever near. with one single exception. of any, body in Alabama being indicted for lynching and taking the lives of peo- pie? The only instance of which I am acquainted occurred in Washington county where they found the lynchers and prosecuted them. and sent some 70 them to the penitentiary Not an- other instance, not another one And 1t Is not for single offense, the out rage committed by negro upon our white women, assaults upon them is something most difficult to suppress. men will-relatives and neighbors feeling indignant get hold of such a wretch soon after it occurs. they are very apt to lynch him. But 1t is not confined to that at all.
 In many, many cases of charges of murder and some of much less gravity a party is taken out and lyncEed. Gen tlemen. 1t tends to degrade our com munity. It renders life safe to no one and it ought to pc broken up.
 l will relate one instance which oc- cured within my own knowledge where some white men went in pursuit of a negro man who had offended them, not by any crime. but they went into town or village and went into a bar room. which was kept by an old ne- gro, man of such character that the authorities allowed him to open a bar and dispose of liquor In talking about the matter, the old negro ventured to remar% that the negro they were pur- suing had not committed an offense sufficient to warrant them in killing him and that he hoped they would not do it. My information is that soon af- ter taking drink or two and feeling lively. they took thar old negro out in front of his bar and shot the life out of him. That Is but one case. There are numerous occurrences and some worse than that.
 The time of the gentleman here ex- pired, and on motion of the delegate from Cleburne (Mr HowelO his time was extended ten minutes.
 MT. Qates-I thank the Convention and my friend. the delegate from CIe- burne. and I shall finish my statement as soon as I can. This Is an intelli- gent body and I wish merely to state what is involved in the amendment.