The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1907-11-21
POINTS FOR POWERS.
Harrison venire Challenged-Ground
For Appeal to v. S. Supreme
Court.-Good Fight Made.

the other three Ills lawyers are fight
Ing every step Of the way with the
greatest ability. and, If they do not
win, have already made Il certain
that they will be able to appeal the
case to the Supreme Court OF the Uni
ted States. which made such severe
comments on the Kentucky methods
OF justice when a single point in the
e eeecase came before 1t over year
ago.
The first advantage gained was in
forcing the Commonwealth to show
its hand and answer ready for trial. in
spite OF absence Of witnesses. Anoth-
er notable victory was scored when
the defense succeeded over the vigor-
Gus objection Of the States attorney
In being allowed to make an avowal,
with written statements OF witnesses.
in support OF the plea Of abatement
and bar to the indictment containing
a copy Of Gov Taylor's pardon to
]
this pardon has been made a part Of
the record and the avowal accompan-
led by this exhibit will be a strong
bulwark for the defense, IL the case is
appealed to higher court. The bill
of exceptions filed by the defense was
another strong spike driven home by
the defense.
The great fight so far has been over
the selection OF a jury, and it is in
this that Powers lawyers have made
their strongest points. They lost
their fight to have jury summoned
from Fayette County. and 1t was or
dered drawn from Harrison County.
stronghold OF Goebel Democrats
Powers objected to this, ON the
ground that an attempt would be made
to inject politics into the jury, and
Mr.. Wilson, his lawyer. made a strong
plea that the sheriff be instructed 20
summon venire half of which should
be Republicans. This plea the Judge
denied. out at the same time he was
so strongly affected by it that he
warned the sheriff that II it should be
shown that the panel was not fairly
selected he would set aside the order.
and direct that new venire be sum-
moned.
The sheriff and his deputies brought
In the first hundred men of the panel,
and after a considerable time spent
in examination five jurors were chos-
en- by Saturday
Then on Monday Powers lawyers
sprang their great motion. This is
that the entire Harrison County We
nire. including the jurors already Sc
lected be dismissed, on the ground
that they were not fairly chosen. and
that there was political bias shown.
II Powers succeeds in proving the
charges in his affidavit and having a
jury called from Fayette County he
will have won hard fought victory
The notice that such motion was
to be made was given Saturday by At
torney Samuel NJ. Wilson, OF counsel
for Powers. but few expected the de-
tense attorneys were armed with the
startling evidence which was offered
The challenge was accompanied not
only by an affidavit from Powers. but
several other persons who related cir
cumstances showing that the officers
that summoned the jurors were more
or less controlled by political bias.
Powers, after reciting how he and
the Republican party had been held
responsible for the Goebel murder and
how the Democratic handbook con-
tanning thirteen pages of matter relat-
ing to the crime and to his trials had
been freely circulated in the county,
showed by statistics that the voting
| strength of the Democrats was but
two TO che over the Republicans, and
Notwithstanding this the relative party
utilization OF the veniremen was near
ly ten to one.
He offered to produce witnesses
who viii testify that the Sheriffs dis
eliminated against Republicans IN the
summoning of the talesmen, in one In
stance summoning only the Democrat
who with Republican friend, was
met on the public highway, and in an
other where two Democrats We're,
picked out of crowd on street cor
ner where there were men who We're
Republicans. Judge Morris allowed the
Commonwealth the privilege of cffer-
ing testimony setting off the conten-
ton of the defense.
One of the afsidavits submitted was
that of one of the attorneys for Pow
ers. who testified that Sheriff Eugene
Gragg had written in a letter saying
] that he did not think enough of Pow