Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1904-07-01
cHAINGANG oUTLAWED.
Beyond the Jurisdiction Of Municipal
Authorities According to Judge

Beyond the Jurisdiction Of Municipal
Authorities According to Judge
Speer.
United States District Judge Emory
Speer, Of the western division Of the
southern district of Georgia rendered
an opinion Of far reaching Importance
last Tuesday, involving the authority
of municipal courts all over the coun-
try to sentence violaters Of municipal
ordinances to local chaingangs. The
case came before Judge Speer on
writ of habeas corpus applied for by
Henry Jamison, negro, for release
from the custody of E. A. Wimbish,
superintendent Of the Bibb county, Ca,
chaingang. Judge Speer in a lengthy
opinion decided that the superintend-
ent was without authority to hold the
prisoner and directed his immediate re-
lease.
In passing upon the case Judge
Speer called attention to the fact that
the commitment from the recorders
court was sentence and nothing
more" and that there was no finding
of guilt or innocence by the recorder.
"The question involved" said Judge
Speer, "is whether the recorder OF Ma
con can, without any sort of criminal
pleading and without the intervention
of jury, convict citizen twice for
violation of a municipal ordinance and
sentence him to seven months at nara
punishment to be suffered in a branch
of the penitentiary" Continuing, ne
said:
Can it be maintained in the light
of the constitution that one man, un-
der any form of procedure devised or
to be devised by local legislation, can
consign men, women and children to
chaingang for such trivial offenses
as are within the Jurisdiction OF
police magistrate?"
Judge Speer severely scored the
chaingang methods and said:
Indeed 1t may be with entire accu-
racy declared that the voluminous and
exhaustive preparation Of the city at
torney and the subsequent examination
by the court has evoked no shred OF
authority, either American or Eng
lish, where a sentence by police mag
istrate to a public chaingang, with the
lignominious accessories Of fetters, the
stripes, lash and of the degradation OF
convict life has been sustained or even
palliated. Under the American system
the chaingang has no place In the
jurisdiction and procedure of police
court where trial by jury IS not right
of the accused"
He then declared the sentence of the
recorder void, for want Of due process
of law and because one man cannot
be judge Of infamy. Like thousands
of oppressed and downtrodden," he
said, through all the centuries since
that glorious day in the history OF the
human liberty when the great charter
made forever imperishable the princi-
pie that no freeman may be taken or
imprisoned but by the lawful judgment
of his peers or by the law Of the land
he applied for the great writ Of right,
the writ Of habeas corpus, and he
humbly seeks the portals Of the court
whose judges are sworn to know no
difference between the rich and the
poor, where justice ever bends the lis
tening ear to catch the plant Of the
humble and the lowIy. IT," he said
further, "the prayer of the petitioner
must be denied, then the statute 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 has at last been success
fully nullified."
Judge Speer declared that the argu-
ment had been advanced by road
commissioner that while sentence to
the chaingang would forever ruin
white man previously respectable 1t had
no such effect on respectable negro.
He held that such considerations dc
not appeal to court charged with the
equal enforcement Of the law, and he
did not believe they met the approba-
tion 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 argu-
ment made by him 20 years ago and
which he reaffirms. In this he said
that though the color line expert may
so declare, this is no color line case.
1t is a negro today. 1t will be white
man, aye white child and a white wo-
man tomorrow. In this court the law
| is equal and for ALL"