The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-05-08
THE MEREDITH CASE.
Lawyers Kerr and Stevens State the
Position of Judge Ferguson.
Clinton N q Nav 7

| IOSltlOU Oh Judge ferguson.
Clinton, n. c., May Z.
To the Editor: In your your issue of
| May 9TH in reference to the pardon
granted Mr.. Meredith we found the
"On April 18th Mr.. Meredith,
through his attorney, Mr.. d. l..
| Ward, went into the Superior
Court, waived a bill and submit
| ted to charge Of assault with a
deadly weapon. Judge Ferguson
imposed a sentence of ten days
Imprisonment in the county jail,
and Mr.. Meredith asked for time
to present his case to the Gov
ernor. The judge allowed him
three days, and Mr.. Meredith
came to aleigh, but found that the
Governor was in the western part
of the State. Thereupon Col.
Pearsall granted reprieve, in or
der that Mr.. Meredith might see
the Governor before the sentence
was imposed"
Seeing this statement "Mr. Meredith
asked for time to present his case to
the Governor. The judge allowed him
three days AIRS lawyers this struck
us as being so peculiar, that we called
on Judge erguSon and asked him if
he would object to giving us q state
ment of the facts in the case. The
judge while expressing a desire not to
enter into any newspaper controversy,
stated the facts substantially as fol-
lows: That Mr.. Meredith was bound
over to corut on a charge of assault
with deadly weapon. He came into
court and through his attorney, Mr..
ID. l.. Ward, and waived q bill and
submitted as stated i'm the article. The
Solicitor offered as a witness Mr.. b. A.
NeWland. an officer of the A. and n. G.
r. r., who had the management and
4
of said road, and showed by him that
Mr.. Meredith had been suspended, and
an explanatin demanded Of him by
witness. This explanation Mr.. Mere
dith had failed 10 give ON the day
of the assault, without any eXplana-
ton at all Mr.. Meredith walked into
the office of Mr.. Newland and asked
if he had removed theembargo, and
pulled out his pistol. Newland said
no. He pointed and leveled it at Mr..
Newland and holding the pistol on
him said, 81 give you ten seconds to
remove it or I'll kill you" Witness
then said friends interfered and car
red Meredith out of the office and
Meredith went out backwards holding
the pistol at the heart of Newland.
Meredith was present in court and
never denied Newlands statements.
Upon these, undisputed facts and
it appearing to the court that Mere
dith was a man of good character,
the judge said he could not allow q
case of this kind to go by without
Imprisonment, but he would not de-
grade him by putting him on the roads
but sentenced him to twenty days in
Jail, which was reduced to ten days.
Application was made to the judge
to postpone the executive of the SER
tence until the last of the week, moth
ing was said about an application to
the Governor and the judge was led
to believe that this was for the pur-
pose of enabling the defendant to
make some arrangements about his
family and he suspected for the pur-
pose of bringing further local influ-
cnce to bear on the judge to relieve
defendant from impriSOnment-the
judge agreed to extend the time until
Friday at II m. Prior to Friday at
II m. the judge was shown letters
from the friends of Mr.. Meredith at
Raleigh stating that the Governor was
absent in the western part of the State
and requesting that the judge extend
the time for the execution of SEN
ltence until the Governor could be seem
This he declined to do and stated that
the sentence would be carried into
execution on Friday at Il m.
On Friday at II m. the judge was
handed a paper with the Governors
name signed to it with the great seal
of the State attached postponing the
execution of the sentence until the
30th of May. The judge was very
much surprised but stated that the
constitution gave the Governor the
power to pardon and the power to re-
prieve or stay the execution of the
sentence of the court and it was the
duty of the sheriff to obey his COM
mands. The judge said if he had
thought that the defendant ought tC
have time to apply to the Governor
for pardon or ought to have been par
doned he would have used the power
which he had and directed the clerk
to strike out the sentence of impris-
onment himself. However, the III lge
stated that he had no criticism to
make of the Governor for exercising
the pardoning power entrusted TO him
by the Constitution of the State.
We thought it due to the many
friends of Judge Ferguson who know
him to be just, impartial, kind, mer-
ciful but firm and conscientious in the
discharge of his duties to give you his
statement and we therefore ask you
to give this article as much publicity
as has been given to the statement
quoted from in your issue of May
9Th, 1904.
Respectfully,
II. l.. STEVENS,
JNO. D. KERR.