Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-12
ISSUES WRIT OF ERROR
COURT OF APPEALS GRANTS STAY
IN WRIGHT CASE.
Action at Richmond Yesterday Upon
the Petition Presented by At
torney James E. Clements.

i :
Keith, president of the supreme court of
Virginia, and Associate Justice Cardwe1l
at Richmond yesterday in granting the PEI
l .tition of Attorney James E. Clements for
| a writ of error and supersedeas in the case
| of John Wright, colored, who was under
| sentence to be hanged at the Alexandria
county Jail Friday next, was served upon
| the jail officials at the prison at Fort Myer
Heights by Mr.. Clements this morning.
This will act as a stay of execution.
In his petition, as presented to the SUI
| preme court, Attorney Clements gave
/ complete review of the case and stated that
4 there Is a grave doubt of the guilt of the
condemned man, and further that new and
! important evidence in Wrights favor has
been discovered since the original trial.
| The case will probably come before the
| court of appeals next month, when the
| question of a new trial for Wright will be
| argued
Substance of the Petition.
In the petition in behalf of his client Mr..
Clements sets forth the facts heretofore
published in The Star regarding the pre-
liminaries to Wright's trial, and stated that
| Mabel Risley, white girl, and her escort,
| Forest Gooding, were together September 8
last in a wood near Luna Park at an I'M
usual and improper hour, and that her es-
| cort had left her and walked to the park
gate where he told the guard that some one
| had taken his girl away from him, where
upon the officer accompanied him to the
place where he had left the girl. Gooding
| and Miss Risley, now Mrs. Gooding), de-
clared that colored man had attacked
| them with pistol and stick and had
| struck Gooding. The girl stated further
that she had been assaulted, but after ac-
companying Gooding to the Emergency Hos
pital in this city, where the wound in his
head was dressed, she left the hospital
without telling any one there of the alleged
| rape.
] Mr.. Clements declares that there was no
evidence she had been criminally assaulted,
except her own statement, unless it could
| who accompanied Gooding to the remote
| spot, which was to the effect that ten min
| utes after he reached her he saw black
| object running away.
Regarded as Absurd.
| He says further:
| at IS too palpably absurd to conceive or
consider that colored man who has COM
mitted an assault on white woman, and
| had seen her escort leave her for help,
would linger around for ten minutes after
the guard had walked 200 yards" He al
leges that upon the record, in it's entirety
| no assault was committed upon the girl.
! Soon after the alleged rape Mabel Risley
and Forest Gooding were married as they
| then expected to be. and are now living to-
| D. c.
Queries Propounded.
| After giving other details Of Wright's
| trial and recting the evidence adduced, Mr.
Clements asks:
DO these facts so far seem to justify an
| impartial mind in reaching a conclusion of
guilt and fixing the punishment at death?
Was not the alibi of the petitioner proved
| by preponderance Of testimony? or was it
not certainly sufficient to raise in the
minds Of the jury a reasonable doubt of the
possibility of the petitioners guilt? And
was not the failure to identify him at once
| a fatal obstacle to the Prosecutors case?
Is not the evidence, in each particular phase
of it, saturated with reasonable doubt? And
does not the evidence, or most of it, seem
to be infiltrated with prejudice and SAVIOR of
collision on the part of the prosecution
He refers, further, to the identification Of
murdered Jackson Boney, crime fresh in
public memory and charges that she adopt
| ed this method of shifting suspicion from
herself:
Matter Of Identification.
That about a week after the occurrence
| Joseph Thomas, alias John Wright, was
| arrested in Washington charged with hav-
| ing failed to pay over to his employer
| few dollars Of collections as teamster,
| and was held in jail, and Miss Mabel Ris-
| ley came to the Jail with officer Of the
| police force for the purpose of identifying
| the guilty party. When Wright and six
other prisoners were lined up before her
| she, after full and careful inspection, picked
| out another man her assailant known
| as Henry Johnson. nicknamed Alabama
| Joe." who had been in Jail for more than
| nine months; and that four white officers
| and guards of the jail-Capt. Edward S.
Ransdell, Thomas H. Hope, James Corrigan |
and William A. Swords-all confirmed her
utter failure to identify Wright as her as
sailant. and declared that she selected and |
designated Alabama Joe" as the man who
had assaulted her
Official Orders Approved.
The Commissioners have approved and
issued the following official orders:
That the following ho laid L