The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1904-10-13
SENATOR McLAURIN GIVES OUT
STATEMENT

Senator MclanTin has gIyen ont
the following station. ut III answer Co a
crit cism of his employment rs coun-
sci in the W. q. Eastland case which
recently appeared in the New York
Evening Post. He goes at some
details into the history of the East
land case, and shows the New York
publication wherein it mas made
several errors. The stats ment is as
follows:
l am just in receipt of clipping
said to be from the New York Evening
Post of the 22nd, which begins with
this statement: Omitted States Sem
ator McLaurin, of Mississippi. yester-
day tried to defend his client q white
fiend who last winter tortured and
burned a negro and his innocent wife
under circumstances Of unprintable
atrocity) on the ground that the burn
ing was a necessity"
| am net familiar with the Post.
but had regarded it as reputable
paper. If it is so, it is astonishing
that such statements, or rather, mis-
statements, should emanate from it
In the sentence I have just quoted
from the clipping, there are four mis-
statements I did not try to defend
my client ON the ground that the burn
ing was necessity. There was not
any evidence that my client burned,
or participated in the burning of the
negroes. The woman was not the
wife of the negro, but his paramour,
for whom he had abandoned his wife
She fled with her paramour. after the
murder, and when they were arrested
she had shotgun and her paramour
had A Colts pistol, and she con-
fessed that she participated in the
murder of the negro Albert Carr and
the white boy James Eastland
I cannot believe that these misstate-
ments were wiIltully and malioiously
made by the Post, but do think
paper of its standing ought to make
a more searching investigation before
uttering charges so sweeping
AT the trial of W. O Eastland, to
whom reference is made in the clip
ping mentioned, brother of James
Eastland, the murdered boy, Judge A.
Nc O. Kimbrough, learned jurist
and impartial judge, presided, and
the state was represented by Hon.
Sam Neill, the district attorney, All
able prosecutor who did everything
that he could legally to develop
case against the defendant Many
witnesses were introduced by the
state but not one of them connected
W @ Eastlsnd, the defendant with
the crime. So, when the state had
introduced all it's witnesses and rest
ed, the attorneys for the defendant
moved the court for peremptory in
stIuction, because there was no evi
denoe tending to prove that defendant
had anything TO do with th lynching,
dir, city or indirectly. In arguing
the motion, did not "try to defend
Eastland on the ground that the burn
ing was a necessity as the clipping
states, but on the ground that there
was not any evidence that Eastland
had anything to do with the killing
of the two negroes who murdered his
brother
When I had concluded my argu-
ment, the district attorney confessed
the motion for peremptory instrnc-
ton, aying to the court that he could
not ask the jury to convict on that
evidence, and the court gave the in
structIon
When there is not any evidence
tending TO make out case against
defendant, it is the law and the
practice for the court to peremptorily
instruct the jury to acquit.
Dobson vs. State, 81, Miss, 3Sl.
l was associate counsel for the de-
PENDANT, the leading counsel being
Baker and Chapman and Charles
Bryant, and therefore it was assigned
to me to open the argument for the
instruction and left to leading counsel
to close the Argument. AS the district
attorney confessed the motion, there
was not any necessity for the closing
argument To denounce as white
fiend," a man against whom there
was not sufficient evidence to go to a
jury is matter of taste that speaks
for itself To be sure it is not as bad
AS the murder of his boy brother. by
negroes who he had befriended, but
following that dire bereavment, it
carries stain not expected from q
cultured person. AS the newspapt1
clippings connected my name with
the sunject of lynching, may, with
out immodesty, refer to the fact that
hive been instrumental in prevent
ing, at different times, the lynchilg
of seven negroes and one white man