The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-08-23
EQUALITY IN LAW
As to Sentences Made in
Wake County.
No "Prison Bounds" Can be Fixed At
ter Court Adjourns. Rogers and
S0rreII Granted Permission to
See Families and Friends.

Much comment was heard in Raj
ing the editorial in the News and OBJ
server of Sunday, in which Equality
Before the Law was discussed. In it's
deductions that no favoritism should
be employed, and that all prisoners in
Wake county Jail should be fed from
the same spoon, there was general
agreement.
In its article it was not the purpose
Of this paper to single out Rogers and
Sorrell, now in Jail after being found
guilty of 2mbracery in trying to in
huence jurors for Messrs. Kilgo and
Duke in the case against them in
which they are charged with malic-
iOus libel by Rev. T. j. Gattis. It
holds that 10 exemption should be
made in their favor, and that there
should be equality before the law
Neither does this paper seek TO lay
blame upon any one, but simply eX
presses the belief that all prisoners
should be treated just as the law di-
Tects.
In the case of Rogers and Sorrell.
the record shows that they were SEN
fenced to Jail by Judge w. R. Allen,
and the road law for Wake county sets
out that when sentenced to Jail prison
ers shall work on the public roads or
highways, this without any further
sentence than to jail In addressing
the attorneys for Rogers and Sorrell
before pronouncing judgment, Judge
Allen said that because these men had
been Confederate soldiers and were ad-
vanced in years. he would not sentence
them to the roads, which he could do
for two years for embracery, but would
make the sentence six months in Jail.
tho 1raIl a
as recorded IN the office of the clerk or
the court is as follows:
Indictment, Embravery.
(Verdict, guilty heretofore during
the term) No. 48, State VS. j. Rowan
Rogers and j. P. SOrrell. Judgment
And now the judgment of the court
being prayed by the solicitor for the
State, it is considered and adjudged
by the court that the defendants, the
said ]. Rowan Rogers, now here, be
imprisoned in the common Jail of
Wake county for the term of six
months, commencing July 10, 1905.
and that he pay the costs herein as
to himself, to be taxed by the clerk.
Judgment suspended as to j. P. Sor-
rell. ..
The same order was then made in
another case as to j.. P. Sorrell. This
was on the fourteenth day of July, and
On the nineteenth AN order was made
by Judge Allen allowing Rogers and
Sorrell to see their families and
friends twice q week, as follows;
'In this case, on motion of j. n.
Holding and j. c. L.. Harris, counsel
for the defendant, j. Rowan Rogers,
it is ordered that w: M. Page, sheriff
of Wake county, take the said Rogers
from the Jail to the court room twice
a week, once on Sunday and once dur
ing the week, for the purpose Of see-|
ing his family and also any person
whom he may desire to see on bust
ness matters during his confinement"
That this applies also to j. p Sorrell is
stated on a side line.
. The law originally provided that the
Judge should sentence to jail and that
then the County Commissioners, in
their discretion, could put the prison.
erS on the, roads. In the laws of 1859
this was changed and it was provided
that the judge could sentence to the
roads at the time of imposing the sem
tence The Act of 1903 goes still fur
Their and provides that in Wake county
all prisoners put in Jail upon convic
ton of crime shall be worked upon
the roads. The whole matter was re-
viewed by She Supreme Court and held
valid in the late case of the State
against Wingate and in the case of the
state against Norwood.
In Wake county the judge does not
sentence to the roads at all, but simply
to Jail. There is only one reason set
forth in the road law Of Wake for
1903 Chapter 551, Section 81 where
parties can be exempted from road
duty, and this is in the following lam
guage:
Provided further, that in case OF
serious physical disability, certified to
by the county physician, persons con-
victed in said Superior, criminal, or
inferior courts in the county, may be
sentenced to the penitentiafy or the
county Jail,
Officials at the court house yeSter-
day held that in this matter they had
only acted according to the law as
they understood it, and had only obey
ed the orders of Judge Allen, AID that
parties sentenced to the roads had
been sent there, while Rogers and Sor-
rell sentenced to JAIL were kept there
except as to the meetings allowed in
the court room with families and
friends
Mr.. Herbert E. Norris, county attor
ney, while expressing the view that
the County commissioners were not to
be blamed, still said that the cOnclus-
ions Of the News and Observer as to