The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-21
TO TEST ORGANIC LAW
NEGRO SAILS INTO coNsTITU-
 TIoN AGAIN.
Secures Writ of Error to United States Supreme Court in Case of Dan Rogers Convicted
 of Murder.

Milford H. Smith. negro lawyer of New York City, has taken new tack and again sailed into the Constitution of Ala bama with a view to testing it's validity before the Supreme Court of the United States.
 Undismayed by his failure with the cases of Jackson w. Giles, Smith has seized upon the case of Dan Rog ,rs, a negro convicted of murder and will en- deavor to show the highest court of the nation that Rogers was convicted of mur- der because the new Constitution deprived him of his, rights as citizen. etc, etc
 Dan Rogers killed Ben Howard anoth- CT negro. on the Red Bridge road about eighteen months ago by shooting him with a pistol The shooting occurred late at night. Rogers claimed that Howard was his good friend and that he was killed accidentally.
 Milford H.. Smith. negro lawyer who had endeared himself to Montgomery ne- groes by his interest in the organic law of Alabama. came on from New York city to defend Rogers. and Rogers was found guilty of murder in the second de- gree. A jury in the City Court of Mont gomery fixed his punishment at twenty five years in the penitentiary.
 Rogers, perhaps ignorant of the fact that his name is being used to test the validity of the new Constitution. IS now serving the State as convict while Will ford H. Smith. negro lawyer. is busily en- gagged in preparing writs of error, bills of exception, briefs and other documents of legal phraseology sufficient to oefuddle ordinary laymen.
 When the Montgomery County jury said that Dan Rogers should expiate his crime by serving twenty-five years in the peni- tentiary Wilfdrd H. Smith, negro lawyer prepared bill of exceptions wherein 1t was shown that twelss white men of Montgomery County, composed the jury which tried the case of Dan Rogers. No negroes were on the jury; the race was ignored and consequently Dan Rogers did not have a fair trial.
 The appeal bond was made by J. w.. Adams, a negro merchant, and Nathan H. Alexander, President Rooseyelt's ne- gro Receiver of Public Moneys.
 The case went to the Supreme Court of Alabama and in an opinion handed down on July 10 the action of the lower court was affirmed. The Supreme Court said the Montgomery County jury had not erred in sending Dan Rogers to the pen itentia:y for twenty-five years.
 Then Milford H. Smith, negro lawyer. wrote an application to the Supreme Court of the United States for writ of error to appeal from the State Court. This application sets out that the new Consti- tuition of Alabama deprives negroes of the right to vote because they are negroes and Is consequently in violation of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the Federal Constitution. The operation of this new Constitution of Alabama, the application says, is to deprive negroes of their right to serve on jurles; that TO ne gro WAS on the grand jury which indicted Dan Rogers. and no negro was on the petit jury which convicted him. Finally the application prays the high court to grant the writ of error that exact justice may be meted out to Dan Rogers and that he, through counsel. may show wherein the Supreme Court of Alabama erred.
 The writ of error was granted by MT. Associate Justice F.. D. White and Will ford H. Smith, negro lawyer, appeared yesterday at the office of the Clerk of the Alabama Supreme Court and secured the records in the case for presentation to the Federal Supreme Court.