The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-10
SAYS HEFL|N CAN'T FOOL THE PUBLIC Sheriff Higdon Out In Another
 Tart Card TOO MUCH NOLLE CROSSING Sheriff IntImates Cases We're NOlIe Prossed To Release Corpora
 ton Firms Tied Up
 in Bonds.
TOO MUCH NOLLE CROSSING
Q the Editor of The Aee-Herald:


 and the morning papers Of the 9th
 instart I will say at the outset that
 my remarks will be directed to Solicitor
 Heflin in his official capacity and not to
 MT. Harrington Heflin as a citizen.
 In every attack made on me he has
 to bring in some judge in the contro-
 vetsy. The first time it was Judge Ben
 ners, now it is Judge Dan Greene.
 Neither one of the judges is paid to
 be the solicitor and I have never ut
 tered word of criticism against them.
 The solicitor cannot fool the public for
 he. knows that the judges in mol pressing
 cases do so on the recommendation ef
 the Jlicitor and I am sure they expect
 him to investigate the warrants, ascertain who the witnesses are and look into the
 merits Of such cases before asking for tn Dir dismissal
 While there are very few strike cases in which warrants were sworn out by
 regular deputy sheriffs who were familiar
 with the evidence it is generally known
 that many cases mol pressed were sim liar to the cases of the eleven negroes captured by regular deputy sheriffs.
 In all such cases it is a shame and
 disgrace on the county to have to pay
 the cost in such cases that were mol
 pressed. Did the solicitor make any effort to find out whether there was
 any evidence against these eleven men? If he had gone to the trouble he would have seen by the warrants that the state
 had at least a dozen witnesses, some
 of whom could have been found in the sheriff S. office at any time.
 Did he ask single witness about the
 cases? No. But exercising his great wis dom of right and justice, he let them
 go and the county pays, not only my fees, but all other costs.
 The public remembers the awful state of affairs that existed during the strike. How armed bodies of men marched from one section of tfN county to another in defiance of the law. How men were mur- dered, passenger trains fired into, pas sengers forced to leave the cars, homes with innocent women and children blown up with dynamite and various other | crimes committed.
 l. sincerely hope we will never have | another strike in this county or any
 unlawful assembly of armed men, but | as a warning to all classes that law is 1 supreme, Iecontend that even minor of- lenses should, under those conditions, be | prosecuted.
 The evidence the state has against | these particular cases, briefly, is as fol- | lows:
 | The same day after the second bat | tie at Jefferson tunnel where a mob of | armed white men and negroes had fired | more than a thousand shots into pas- | senger train, wounded number of men, including officers of the law and others wi ho On fn Rl0SShurQ to earn living for their families, liable news came to this office that these same armed men were marching to Ad- amsville to stop any laborers who might attempt to come on trains through Ad- amsville.
 Deputies who were not engaged at other points, together with a military company were sent to disperse this body of armed men. When the special train bearing these men reached Pratt City I 1 received from Col. H. R. Kennedy, who
 had just come in from Adamsville in formation that a mob of more than 300 armed men were at Adamsville awaiting the arrival of the train. He urged me to send a larger force than that on the way.
 I stopped the special at Pratt City, called on more military companies and had them join the first body. This took time and the special did not reach Ad- amsville until after midnight. The train was stopped mile this side of AdamsviHe. Deputies were sent out and il negroes were found at 1 o'clock in the morning hid behind house near the railroad track, on an embankment that commanded both the railroad and public road. .s They were armed with large calibre re- beating rifles and double-barreled pump shotguns, loaded with buckshot. Every gun was cooked and some Of them drawn to the shoulder to be fired.
 Stubborn resistance was offered but the men were captured and disarmed with ont any loss of life. If the train had passed would these men have fired on the train? Armed bodies did so at ? o'clock on the same day and some Of these same negroes were seen at the Jef- ferson tunnel with guns Just before the train arrived and was fired upon. Solicitor Hefin cannot make the people helieve that Judge Dan A. Greene or any other judge would have consented to the nolle pressing of these cases. had they known that the state had such evil dence to give in these cases. Solicitor Hefiin says the records of the criminal court will not bear out my state ment about the nolle pressing of these cases I do not know what the records show in these particular cases, but I do know that they show that moro than thousand cases have been nolle pressed without looking farther back. At this same ratio each year, since he has been l the solicitor more than 10000 cases have been nolle pressed. I will say right here that I am satisfied a great many have been and should have been dismissed. hut A great many more should not have | been nolle pressed.
 I In looking over the records the solici- 1 tor so proudly refers to, l ind in one particular lot of 76 cases, where he nolle | pressed 75 of them after the parties had l been tried in one case (and the evidence l in all the cases the same), was fined the | lowest fine and cost, which amounted in | the one case to $192.95. If they were | guilty in one they were guilty in all, and | if they had been prosecuted, the county would have received $14,664.20. The solicitor not only nolle pressed l these cases, but came down to the sher- 1 fir 8 office and asked me to agree to the | nolle pressing of them and let the state l lose the costs. We told him plainly we | would never agree to the county's losing 1 any part of the cost and he then had all 1 the 76 cases settled on the payment of l s1O6s. 30 or a net loss to the county of | $13, ,5S5. 30.
 l If he hal prosecuted the cases as his 1 duty requires, it would not have been l necessary to consult the sheriff or any l one else as to what to do.
 /, For fear that the solicitor will get these 1 eases mixed with thousands of others he I has mol pressed, I will remind him that I these are the cases where syndicate was 1 organized and took out license from the l county to operate trade slot machines.