The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1902-04-25
SHERIFF NueENT AND the SUMTER
COUNTY PRESS.

Star, and its attempt to make a hero
of Sheriff Nugent when that officer
was seeking no such notoriety, be has
been placed in false light before the
people of Sumter county, and the
! newspapers there are criticising him
not only unfairly but most unjustly.
Sheriff Nugent did nothing that
should bring upon him the djspleas-
ure and ill will of a neighbOring PEG.
pie.
He was not in Sumter county on
! his own vOliti0n nor invitation and
certainly not for the purpose of seek
ing and securing a cheap reputation.
He was there as an officer, sworn to
uphold the law, under instructions
from the Judge of the circuit and the
governor Of the state, and his conduct
should have gained for him the plaud-
its of y law abiding people.
Instead of calling Sheriff Nugent
"the man-eater from Marion county,"
and holding him up to public ridl-
cule, it seems TO us that the newspa-
81
render TO the men composing the
mob, who during the very proceedings
of the court, entered the courthouse
and proceeded to terrOize the Judge
and intimidste the officers of the
law, inclu ling the executive of the
state, as will further along be shown.
notwithstanding the extraordinary
proceedings in the trial of the muir
derer, the ordering of an extra term Of
the court for the purpose Indeed in
the very midst of the Marion term
which had TO be adjourned the ex-
traOrdinary swiftness of the whole
proceedings, the wretch's speedy trial
and conviction, the mob boldly en-.
tered the temple of the law at a signal
agreed upon, and-judge, jury and of
ficers to the ontrary-demanded the
prisoner for immediate lynching if
the father of the murdered man would
but nod his assent.
The appeals for the ascendancy of
lhe law and the preservation of the
good name of the county on the part
of Senator Baker, Editor KOOnce, and
of Judge Bullock himself. and the
verdict of the jury which carried with
it the punishment of death, were of
no avail unless assanted to and &C.
quiesced in by the relatives of the
murdered man,
The legal proceedings, swift as they
were, carried no weight with the
mob, inspired 10 their breasts 10 re-
spect for the law and no disposition
to uphold it.
The condemned man only escaped
lynching then and there by the
prompt, determined and heroic con-
duet Of the judge, the cOOluess of the
sheriffs, the failure of the murdered
mans relatives to give their assent,
and the promise of Mr.. Koonce to the
mob that he would hurry to Talla-
hassee, have the condemned mans
death warrant Immediately signed
and have the wretch legally hanged
the following Friday.
1t was a bold attempt to terrOFize
the authorities of the law in its eX.
ecutiop, aud was partly successful in
that the condemned man was ex.
ecuted within the time-limit fixed by
the mob.
For mob numbering two or three
hundred persons to enter a court
house while the court is in session and
make threatening demands upon it,
or demsnds upon it of any kind,
ia high-handed proceeding
1t 10 an open defiance of law, a
trampling under foot of our most sa-
cred traditions, and instead of un-
friendly. and unjust criticism OF the
officers of the law in the performance
of their sworn duties, we think it
would be decidedly in better taste if
the newspapers. of Sumter county
were to turn their heavy batteries
upon the members of the mob in their