The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-06-29
Have NO Right to Put Pris-
ensrs on the Chain Gang
50 SAYS u S, JUDGE SPEER
Renders Lengthy Opinion Of Far
Reaching Importance to Municipal
courts-Shaeklina of Prison
era Is Condemned.

Macon. Ga. June 2s.-Unlted States
District Judge Emory speer Of the west
ern division district of Georgia today
rendered an opinion of far reaching inn
portance involving the authority Of mum
icipal courts all over the country to SEN
tence violators of municipal ordinances to
local chain gangs. The case came before
Judge Speer on writ of habeas corpus
applied for by Henry Jamson. a negro,
for release from the custody Of f. A.
wimblsh. superintendent of the Bibb
county, Georgia, chain gang.
Judge speer in a lengthy opinion de-
out authority to hold the prisoner and
directed his immediate release. In passing
on the case Judge speer called attention
to the fact that the commitment Of the
records of the court was "a sentence and
nothing more" and that there was no
finding of guilty or innocence by the re-
corder. The question involved said Judge
Speer is whether the recorder Of Macon
can without any sort of criminal pleading
and without the Intervention of jury
convict a citizen twice for violation OF
municipal ordinance and sentence him to
seven months at hard labor on the public
chain gang. the punishment to be suffer-
ed in branch of penitentiary."
Against the Constitution.
Continuing he said:
"Can 1t be maintained in the light OF
the constitution that one man under any
form of procedure devised or tc' be de-
vised by local legislation can consign
men, women and children to a chain
gang for such trivial offenses as are
within the jurisdiction of the police mag
istrate."
Judge speer severely scored the chain
gang methods and said:
Indeed 1t may be with entire accu-
racy declared voluminous and exhaustive
preparation of the city attorney at the
subsequent examination by the court has
evoked no shrewd of authority either Am
erican or English where a sentence by
police magistrate to a public chain gang
with the ignominous accessories of fet-
ters, the stripes, lash and Of the degen-
GRAFTON Of convict life has been sustain-
ed or even palliated Under the Ameri-
can system the chain gang has no place
in the Jurisdiction and procedure OF ponce
courts where trial by jury is not a right
of the accused"
Sentence Is Void.
He then declared the sentence OF the
recorder void for want of due process of
law and because one man cannot Judge
infamy Like thousands of the oppress-
ed and down-trodden.' he saId though
all the centuries since that glorious day
in the history of human liberty when
the charter made forever imperishable the
principle that no free man may be taken
or imprisoned by the lawful Judgment OF
his peers or by the law Of the land. ha
applies for the great writ of right the
writ Of habeas corpus and humbly seeks
the portels of the court where the judges
are sworn to know no difference between
the rich and poor. where justice ever
bends the listening ear to catch the
plaintna of the humble and lowy.
IL as he said the prayer of the petition
er must be denied then the statutes au-
thorizing the United States courts and the
judges thereof to issue the writ Of habeas
corpus to protect the rights of the citizen
guaranteed by the national constitution
have at last been successfully nullihed"
Not Negro Question.
Judge Speer declared that the argument
had been made by a road commissioner
that while sentence to chaingang
would forever ruin white man, previous
ly respectable, II had no such effect on ~
respectable negro. He held that that such
considerations do not appeal to court
charged with the equal enforcement of
the law and he did not believe they met
the appreciation of the best people Of the
southern states nor were they conducive
to the welfare of the south or hopeful for
Its future.
Judge Speer concludes with an areu-
ment made by him twenty years ago and
which he reaffirms. In this he said:
'''Though the color line expert may so de-
clare this is no color line case. II is
negro today. II will be a white, aye
white child and a white woman tomorrow.
In this court The law is equal and so ara