The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-02-15
A DENIAL OF RIGHTS.
Continued from Tenth Page,

clerk for the entire district, to write or
telegraph to the clerk in Savannah to
ship the boxes 20 Macon by the South
ern Express Company and suppose it
should also be within the judicial no.
tice of the judge that at each term of
the court when the jury box was
opened and the jurors names drawn
therefrom that the judge himself locks
the box and seals 1t with his own per-
sonal seal, and that box comes to the
judge in pursuance of such instructions
with the seal unbroken and the Judge
then opened the box in open court in
the presence of the district attorney
and of the marshal and drew the
jurors therefrom, would you then con-
tend that there was such a delivery
to strangers as would be a violation Of
the law?"
Mr., Charlton stated that those were
what he had assumed to be the facts
or the case and constituted an extreme
case, but he did not think IL af-
1ected his position because he did not
think the court, could order the clerk
to part with the custody of the box
and give it to the Southern Express
Company, which V as a common carrier
that would treat th> jury box with the
same degree of care that it would any
package of the most inconsiderable
'~AN'N' - lhtAG W DIS dlNInl IN MS
point the jury box cannot leave the
custody of the clerk or his deputies
Courts judicial COwniznoce
In regard to the reason why Jurors
were not taken from Chatham and
flynn counties, Judge Speer, during
the argument, remarked: ''It is within
the judicial knowledge, and. therefore
proper that 1 should state it to you
at the present time, that Chatham and
Glynn were left out because an i'm
portant and very famous trial affect
ing eX-Capt. Oberlin M Carter was
conducted here in Chatham and be-
cause there was believed to be by the
court a very great division of public
sentiment with regard to that case.
both here and in Glyn county, and the
object of the presiding judge was 10
get jurors who had not taken one side
or the other of the controversy and
who would. therefore, be impartial iur-
ors. So we went down to the other
counties of the district to get men who
had not heard the evidence delivered
on oath and made up their opinions
about the case.
Mr.. Charlton stated that no one
doubted that the action taken by the
court was with the idea of bringing
about fair investigation, but that the
practical effect was to get grand jurors
who were not accustomed to dealing
with questions of large expenses by the
government, who would be dazzled by
the mere mention of $1,000, 900, and
would think that anybody who got 81
OOO,0 for anything ought to go to the
pententiary The very hight of their
ambition was to get on the bench of
the Superior Court and draw $1,000 a
year.
Judge Speer remarked he did not
doubt the grand jury who returned the
Indictment was worth a million dollars.
The grand jury to whom Judge Speer
alluded was composed of many promi-
nent and wealthy men from Southwest
Georgia.
The concluding argument for the
defendants was made by Mr.. d. w.
Rountree, who. in New of the lengthy
and exhaustive discussion of the points
at issue by Mr.. Charlton, made only a
brief speech.
What Judge Speer Wanted.
Mr.. Erwin began his argument after
Mr.. Rountree concluded, but had
scarcely begun before he was stopped
by the court. Judge Speer said he de-
sired to outline some of the points upon
which he particularly wished to hear
from the district attorney.
II am not very much troubled about
the attack upon this plea for duplicity
or failing to allege negatives and the
like" said Judge Speer. 81 think it
would be well for you to address your
argument to the weightier and more
meritorious considerations which have
been so exclusively presented this
morning.
Zone of them is whether the defend
ants are estopped, in view of the course
of this litigation in the state of New
York and in the Supreme Court of the
United States, incident to the removal
of the defendants here for trial, or has
not the general course of the decision
in New York, or particularly of the de-
cision of the Supreme Court of the
United States, justified them in making
the fight they have made, and, there
fore. avoid the estoppal upon which
you insist. Had the court the power to
draw a jury at Macon, not in the East
ern division? Was the jury box prop
erly organized or made up after names
from Chatham and Glynn were elimi-
mated? Was the box properly organ
lied in view of the averment that the
deputy clerk and not the clerk put the
names in the box"
Mr.. Erwin said he would, in the
course of his argument, take up and
discuss every point suggested by the
court, but that he did not feel he
could, in justice to the government,
conflne his remarks exclusively to
these questions. The pieadings of the
defendants were legally faulty and in
sufficient. ambiguous and contradic-
tory. said the district attorney, and he
desired to be heard on these strictly
legal and technical questions, as we'll
as the weightier matters of substance
suggested by the court Therefore.
while he would answer the courts
questions, he could not properly dis
cuss them in the exact order suggest
ed.
you mean" said Judge Speer, that
the suggestions of the court have dis
arranged rather the thread of your ar
gument."
"Why, yes, sir; I mean Just that"
said Mr.. Erwin.
ain that event" rejoined the court,
1--WE will take the recess now until to-
morrow morning. and in the meantime
you may rearrange your argument so
as to make it chime with suggestions
made"
Then the recess was taken.