The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-09-23
NO TRUE BILLS FOUND
DALLAS COUNTY LYNCH
 FRS WE'RE DISCHARGED.
0rsnd Jury Reported to Judge Part- ridwe That They Had Failed to lndict Sardis NeiEhborhood
 Men.

| TI0Ke Tn4N ImSy nuo AbICO tO | 1ndict Sardis Neighborhood Men.
 1 | Advertiser Bureau Selma, September p.
 Shortly after II o'clock this morn | inE the grand jury reported to Judge Daniel Partridge, of the Circuit Court and recommended that the three white
 special constab1es and the seven ne. Groes now confined in jail charged with the lynching of the negro Edward Bell in the Sardis neighborhood, seven weeks ago. be discharged.
 The decision of the grand jury was a l great surprise to the people of Selma | and there has been much severe criti. cism of their action. xt is the general belief that if there was sufficient evil dence for Judge Mabry to hold the 1 men on the charge of murder in the | first degree without bail. that there was certainly enough evidence for the grand jury to bring in a true bill l Shortly after the report of the grand fury was made Sheriff Blackwell dis | charged the men from his custody and l they left at once for their home on the | Southside. Eugene Roberts, the ne- gro who made a confession implicatin the white constables and other white | mcH HI thc iyuCuiuBp was dlSO 01S- charged, but it is not believed that he will return to the Southside. Those who took part in the lynching of the negro Bell would no doubt make short work of Roberts If he dared return to that neighborhood.
 Though his work In the end has &C., compifshed nothing. the law-abiding citizens Of Dallas County are high in their praise of Sheriff Blackwell for the course he has pursued in running down the men implicated in the crime and collecting the necessary evidence to present to the grand jury.
 Included in this list of those re-
 leased were the three special con-
 stables. B. F. Cherry. D. C. stanfl and
 M. M. Ransom and seven negro men. The vote of the grand jury stood 10 for finding a true bill and eight for dis
 charging the prisoners.
 Claimed Outside Iunuences. Immediately after the report was
 made to Judge Partridge the solicitor.
 Colonel W. W. Quarles stated to the court that he had reasons to believe
 that some of the jurors had been
 talked to with the view of influencing
 their action on the case. Judge Part
 ridge thereupon swore each juror and asked the question if any one had dis cussed matters with them which were
 under the consideration of the grand
 jury.
 Frank Nunnelee answered Judge
 Partridge by stating that he had been
 stopped on the streets by a man un-
 known to him and requested to be as
 light as possible on the three white
 constables. Herbert Brown, foreman
 of the jury. stated that Mrs. Stanfil,
 mother of one of the prisoners. had ksN II l.
 regard to the case, but that he in-
 formed her that he could not discuss the matter with her.
 The Advertiser correspondent has
 knowledge of the fact that on the af-
 ternoon after the grand jury was drawn prominent farmer of the Sar- dis neishborhood with James Hunter offered to wager $1e0 to sI0 that the grand jury would not find a true bill and he then stated that the vote of the grand jury would be 10 to 8 and that as result the prisoners would be dis charged.
 This statement was made to at least two men and The Advertiser Is In a position to state that Solicitor Quarles was acquainted with this fact whom he stated to the court that he believed that certain members of the grand jury had been talked to with the view of influencing their action in the case.
 The public generally were very much disappointed with the verdict of the jury and 1t is almost the unanimous opinion that had not the white men been charged with the crime jointly with the negroes that a true bill would have been returned against the ne- groes. The failure to return true bill against the alleged lynchers was certainly not for the want of evidence as in addition to the evidence intro- duced by the State at the preliminary hearing of the special constables be- fore Judge Mabry in this city. when they were held for murder in She first degree and denied bail. the negro Flu gene Roberts, who according to his own admission was implicated in the crime, testified to practically the same facts before the grand jury that he did in the confession, which nc made several weeks ago, duplicating the three special constabies as ring leaders in the lynching.
 This confession was printed. at the time exclusively in The Advertiser, while men of high standing and charac- ter also testified before the grand jury. The verdict of the grand jury was a great disappointment to the law-abid- ing citizens of Dallas County.
 It was stated tonight by Solicitor Quarles that any future grand jury can again take up this matter as long as the men accused are alive, but did not indicate that such action would te taken.
 Conservative citizens believe that 1t was certainly the duty of the grand jury, with the evidence before them. to have returned true bill against the men, and then allowed the court after a fair and impartial trial to determine whether or not the men were guilty of the crime charged.
 The report of the grand jury did not state that they had failed to find suf- ficient evidence against the accused men. but read as follows: Having in- vestigated the charges against the fol- lowing prisoners (here was inserted a list of the alleged lynchers) containe in the Dallas County jail. and having found no true bill against them, we recommend their release from further custody"
 A prominent citizen of Selma tonight In discussing the verdict of the grand jury. said: Tt Is very deplorable from the fact that it in a way gives the sane lion to mob of negroes taking the | law into their own hands and may lead | 10 repetition where the victim of the mob will be a white man. The fact | that white men who were supposed to | be guardians of the law were impli- l cated in the crime Is no reason why | the grand jury should not have at least | allowed the men to have stood trial for | he crime"
 This Is fair sample of the opinions hat have been expressed by the best