The Savannah morning news., 1902-02-11
AT JUSTICES BAR
ALLEGED CONsPIRATORs AGAINST
THE L. s. WILL STAND.
GREENE GAYNoRs-C0NNoLLY
WILL APPEAR BEFORE JUDGE
SPEER THIS MORNING.

turn of the Indictment Against
the Alleged COnspirators with
Ex-Capt. OberIin NJ. Carter to De-
fraud the Government, the De-
PENDANTS To-day VIII File Pleas
of Abatement as Their PreIimina-
ry Proceeding in the Trial of the
Celebrated Case-Demurrer to the
Indictment-JudEe Speer and OH
Gals Arrive This Morning and
Court Will Convene at 10 O'Clock.
More than two years after the re-
turn of the Indictment against the
alleged participants in the Carter
Greene Gaynor conspiracy, by which
the government is said to have been
defrauded of more than $4,000, 900. and
for which one of the defendants, con-
demned by military court-martial, is
now in Leavenworth penitentiary the
five others will to-day be placed on
trial in the United States District
Court.
The five to face Judge Speer to-day
and plead to the Indictment against
them are Benjamin D. Greene, John
f. Gaynor, William r. Gaynor Ed
ward H. Gaynor and Michael A. Con-
molly. To-day will be begun their trial
in the tribunal which the laws of the
land say shall determine the question
of their guilt or innocence. 1t will be
a contest long and bitterly fought, to
which the judicial proceedings of the
last two years, before Commissioner
Shields, Judge Brown and Judge La
combe. in New York, and finally be-
fore the Supreme Court have been
but the prelude. The sensations of the
case, the climax in this melodrama of
real life, are yet held and hidden in the
veil of the future. 1t is during the
progress of this trial before Judge
Speer that it is expected they will
be developed.
Pleas I'm Abatement.
AS was told in the Morning News a
week and more ago, there will be no
plea of guilty or not guilty when the
defendants are arraigned. Instead
there will be filed two pleas in abate-
ment, one in behalf of Greene and the
Gaynors, and the other in behalf of
Connolly. Attorneys for both will
discuss at length and in detail the al
legged impeTfections in the indictment
and in the manner of its return, on ac-
count of which the defendants con-
tend they should not be required TO
plead further.
The manner in which the grand jury
by which the indictment was returned
was drawn, including the fact that
there was not in the jury box at the
time of the venire the full number of
jurors required by law. and the fur
Their fact that the grand jurors from
the counties of Chatham and Glynn
were especially excluded. will be at
tackled in the pleas in abatement
A 10 o'clock this morning court will
be convened by Judge Speer and the
great case that is to absorb the courts
attention during a large part of the
present session will be called.
The Array of Lawyers
formidable array of counsel will
appear for the government and the
several defendants. Representing the
United States will be District Attor-
ney Marion Erwin and Samuel b.
Adams, Esq, special counsel for the
government, and probably Assistant
District Attorneys William R. Leaken
and Alexander Alderman. Greene and
the Gaynors will be represented by
Messrs. duBignon & Stephens and w
Messrs. Fielder & Rountree of Atlanta
and Connolly by Messrs. Mercer & Mer-
Ger of Savannah.
1t has already become evident that
the government does not intend to adj
init the allegations of fact to be made
in the pleas in abatement of the de-
PENDANTS, or at any rate that counsel
for the defendants do not expect that
such admissions will be made. Practi-
cally all the officers of court, including
Marshall John NJ. Barnes and former
Office Deputy Marshal Charles J.
White, Clerk II. n. King and Deputy
Clerks Gillespie and Erwin have al
ready been subpoenaed to appear and
give evidence as to the manner in
which the grand jury by which the in
dictment was returned was drawn.
A special Issue Looked for.
If indications accurately predict con-
illusions. a special issue will have Ia
be framed on the facts alleged in the
pleas in abatement and to be denied by
the government, and this issue will
have to be determined by Judge Speer
before the trial of the case on it's mer-
it's IS begun.
The plea in abatement to be filed by
counsel for Greene and the Gaynors
will not be limited, however, to an at
dicaticns that the subsequent conduct
of the case by the government, the
manner in which its evidence was Sc
cured and introduced at the prelim-
mary hearings in New York and other
matters and things, foreign to the man.
ner in which the grand Jurors were
drawn and the indictment returned,
will also be discussed in this plea in
abatement.
Hon. Walter G. Charlton, though
representing Greene and the Gaynors,
does not represent Capt. Carter in this
case. His representation of Capt.
Carter is confined to civil suit. Capt
Carter. therefore, will make no answer
In court this morning.
The bonds under which Greene. the
Gaynors and Connolly are now at lib
erty viii not terminate with their APP
pearance in court. This is contrary to
the view that aas been expressed
among the laity. but counsel for the
defense said yesterday that the bonds
will continue in force until the conelu-
sion OF the trial The defendants.
therefore, will not be put in jail, but
will remain at liberty.
G0In TO frIUsIIF VICTIM