The news & observer., 1905-09-12
Brown Woman Taken
From City's Custody.
A HEARING THURSDAY
i strict Judge to Hear Argume nj
Whether He Can 0ver.Rule State
Supreme Court. Grounds Relied
On by Abandoned Woman and
Three Negro Convicts.

toned for by Colonel Harris in four
cases of persons tried before the Po-
lice Justice of Raleigh, in which it is
alleged that the trials were void as
denying right of jury and by reason
of defective methods of verifying war;
rants on which the charges were
founded, were yesterday issued by
Judge T. r. Purnell, judge of the
Eastern district of North Carolina.
The writs are respectively for Bertha
Brown, convicted of keeping a bawdy
house, Osburn Brown, running gaming
room, Will Snow, assault with a dead
ly weapon, and John Person, also
convicted of assault with deadly
weapon.
OF these Osburn Brown is serving
sentence of ninet-- days on the roads
and Snow and Person sentences of six
months each. The woman, Bertha
Brown, who is white, was convicted
last week and fined one hundred dol
lars which she has not paid and in de-
fault of which she must go to the
work house. In the petition for her
writ the illegalities alleged are con-
fined TO the refusal OF trial by jury
and to the alleged unconstitutionality
of the warrant ION information and
belief; in the Osburn Brown case
there is also raised the question of
whether a sentence to the roads, where
persons guilty oil felony are worked
and where stripes are worm does not
constitute in the case of one convicted
of a miSdemeanor the "cruel and un-
usual punishment inhibited by the
constitution. The reasoning on the
last named ground was first brought
prominently before the public by the
decision of Federal Judge Spears. of
Georgia, who held that the degrada
ton involved in such a sentence was
so great as to come within the mean
ing of the constitution. SO far as is
known the question as to the illegality
of the long practiced warrant ION in
formation and belief has not before
been brought in question in this State.
Bertha Brown. who had been at lib
erty on bond pending action on the
petition by Judge Purnell. appeared
in the Police Justices court yester-
day about half-pasl twelve and put
herself in the custody of the chief of
police, she having refused to pay the
fine imposed. The writ was then at
once served on the chief and the wo-
man carried Immediately before Judge
Purnell in the Federal court build
ing There City Attorney Snow and
Attorney Geenral r. ID. Gilmer, repre-
Senting the State, asked for a post
ponement of the hearing until they
could have time to prepare an answer
70 the points set forth by the petition.
This was allowed and the hearing set
tor eleven o'clock on Thursday morn
ing, the woman being again admitted
to bail for her appearance at that time
in the sum OF two hundred dollars.
her bondsman being I. F. Brockwell,
lock and gun smith
The writS i'm the cases of the three
negroes on the roads had not been
served yesterday afternoon but have
been issued and will be served in time
for Superintendent of Roads Henry
Holding to have them in the court or
Thursday morning.
The writ served on the chief of
police in the Bertha Brown case is
as follows:
UNITED States of America, AT
chambers.
Eastern District of North Carolina
The State of North Carolina,
writ of HabeaS Corpus.
Bertha Brown.
ITO j. III. Mullins.
Chief of Police of the City of
Raleigh:
Upon the foregoing petition you
are commanded to have the body OF
Bertha Brown, prisoner lpw in your
custody. before me at the Fedora.
therein in the City of Raleigh. on this
day, the 18th day of September. 1905.
az the hour of one o'clock, p. m. You
will also bring with you the cause o.
detention of the said Bertha Brow II
by you.
Done at my office in the City OF
Raleigh, this the Sth day of Septem-
ber in the year of Our Lord one
thousand nine hundred and five.
(Signed1 "THOS. r. PURNELL,
United States District Judge.
The specific charges as to illegallty
in the petition are that the warrant
ION information and belief is void
as being in violation of Articles 4 and
Ii of the Amendments to the Constjtu-
tion of the United States and that the
refusal to grant trial r. Jury is vio
lative of Article OF the Constitu-
ton.
The questions raised practically in
volve the sovereignty of the State and
its power under the Constitution Of
North Carolina to act indepersiently
in cases of violation of the State laws
in the particulars named. 1t was only
al the last term of the Supreme Court
that the point presented as to the re-
fusal Of trial by jury was argued on
appeal in case involving the constitu-
tionality of the AshevilIe Police JUS
tice's court the powers and functions
of which are practically Identical with
that of the City of Raleigh. The
Supreme court in that case upheld the