Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-08-14
PARDONED MAN
TO BE RELEASED
Governor Instructs State
Warden To Release
Him and To Serve
Rule Nisi.

Not only has Governor Gambler
sent a state warden to free Convict w.
B. Freeman, now illegally held IN Early
county, and also sent word to the county
commissioners of that county and TO Cali
lahan & Co. to appear before the prison
commission on August 9th, but he also
denounces the misdemeanor convict
camps in emphatic language. and declares
he will make them the subject Of a mes-
sage to the legislature.
Some Of these convict camps" he de-
clared, "are mere evasions Of the laws
some are organized despite the law"
Before today's sun shall set Free
man viii be free man. for the governor.
Attorney General Boylkin Wright and the
prison commission have sent War
den J. c. Moore with a certified copy OF
Freeman's pardon, and also a rule nisi
commanding the county commissioners OF
Early county and also Callahan a Co..
proprietors of the convict camp where
Freeman has been illegally restrained. to
appear and show cause why the camp
should not be broken up and its convicts
taken.
This is the latest step in the difficulty
between Governor Gambler and Sheriff
Higgs and Callahan & Co. In connection
with the detention of Freeman, who was
pardoned July 18th, and is still restrained
of his liberty.
"And," says the governor laconically,
eft is the beginning Of the end"
Freeman was pardoned July 18th, the
Judge who sentenced him having written
the governor and urged his pardon, as the
man had been convicted Of the Illegal
sale of LIQUOR only through a technicality.
The governor supposed Freeman had been
pardoned until two weeks later he re-
ceived a letter from the mans lawyer.
saying he was still imprisoned. The gov
ernor took the matter UP, and II has been
discovered that the trouble lay in the fact
that Freeman had been hired to Callahan
& Co, who maintain a convict camp In
Early county, and they had paid Sheriff
Higgs $50 for him, the money having
been divided among the county officers
as costs. When the pardon was taken to
Callahan & CO. they refused to discharge
Freeman unless the $50 had been refunded.
So the matter drifted along for weeks,
the governor still making attempts 70
have Freeman released until yesterday
morning. after a conference between the
governor, the attorney general and the
prison commission, Warden Moore has
been dispatched TO the scene Of the trQu-
bic with premeptory orders.
Speaking of the trouble. Governor
Gambler said this morning:
THE attorney general holds that as the
sheriff is the ministerial officer Of the
county III which Freeman was conxinteds
Il was my duty TO send the pardon to him
and his duty to deliver it TO the county
authorities. who under the law have
charge Of misdemeanor convicts. They
should have directed Callahan to dis
charge Freeman. Neither the governor
nor the commission is supposed to know
of the disposition made Of misdemeanor
convicts by the county commissioners"
Freeman is worked by the convict camp
in Early county because he was turned
over to the authorities of that county by
the county commissioners of Montgomery
county, where he was sentenced.