The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-17

mitted, we were bound to indict.
 Feeling that the county and it's citizens have been ortrageously treated by the sheriff in wilfully, openly and notoriously violating his oath of office, the law and his promise to the people of this county, we feel that the sheriff ought to be inn peached, and therefore recommend such proceedings be instituted at once.
 Cites Tiv Kelly Case.
 2. We understand from proper con- struction of the laws of our state that any sheriff when called upon by a citi- zen of the state for protection, that it is his duty under the law to give such citizen protection. In this matter it has come before our body that one Tlv Kelly, an unfortunate negro who was taken from train at Cardiff, a little town in this county, was arrested and placed in jail, and his trial delayed until after dark, and he was tried, fined and turned loose upon the com munity without any protection what ever. This negro was taken from the train by what is supposed to be strik ing miners, and roughly handled The sheriff hearing of the matter and hay ing information that the negro was liable to be killed by the miners, sent a certain deputy sheriff to that town to investigate the matter. and upon his arrival there the negro had been fined and turned loose, and the negro ap pealed to him for protection. and went so far as to offer the said deputy sher- if $2 if he would protect him or escort him to the nearest military camp some few miles distant, where he could get protection. The deputy sheriff notified the sheriff of the condition of affairs, and the sheriff notified him to play han dc offa tn Ia wit the negro, that he did not want to be responsible for the negro's life. In the name of God and all fairness how could a private citizen, much less the sheriff of the county, whose duty 1t was to protect this negro, refuse to give such protection, when In his mind 1t meant the death of the unfortunate negro. This negro some days afterward was found dead. We ask the community who was guilty of the murder or death of that negro?
 If there Is any law in this state pro- tecting a citizen, and impeaching sheriff for cowardice in being afraid to do his duty, this seems to us clear case of impeachment, and we therefore recommend his impeach ment in this matter.
 Holding Men in Jail.
 
 that the sheriff has been making it a practice to go out into the community and arrest people. place them in jail and force them to remain there for days and days at time. sometimes as much as week, without knowing what charge they were arrested upon, thereby forcing these unfortunate peo- pie to languish behind the bars of the jail, at the expense of the county, and el ,1., a1r1tsf tn em. Is this because the sheriff does not care to take the trouble to get out such warrant immediately. or is it because this unfortunate being is ar rested purely upon suspicion. for the sake of the sheriff making a few dol lars for turnkey fees, and that he is forced to lay in jail until sufficient evidence can be had to create an of fense or is 1t for graft? Is it proper under the law for citizen of this state to be arrested without a war rant and to compel him to remain in jail for days in ignorance of his crime? As we understand 1t, under the law 1t is the duty of the sheriff of the county to immediately go before judge or some official having authority to issue warrants and have such war rants issued at the earliest possible moment If this practice is being done because the sheriff Is ignorant of his duty, and don't know what is his duty, the court should correct this menace to the citizens. If it Is being done in open violation of the law and the rights of the citizens for the purpose of graft then we think this matter should be ended, and the courts put a stop to it.
 Insufficient Baliffs.
 Sbariff is instructed by the court to at all times have sufficient bailiffs in attend ance upon the grand jury so as to in sure prompt service in the matter of summoning witnesses before it. We are further informed by the deputy clerk of the criminal court that at the time this grand jury was empanneled your honor placed an order on your docket instructing the sheriff to fur nish to the grand jury six bailins, that their delibera tions might not be him dered. We wish to inform your honor that of the six bailiffs that are paid by the county $2 per day per balliff during our deliberations, it has been almost impossible to have witnesses promptly brought before our body, this being caused as we understand 1t from the fact that the sh eriff when he sees so fit, takes the bailiffs that should be in attendance upon the grand jury, and places them at other duties, that of serving papers out of other courts having nothing whatever to do with this branch of the law. We have had subpoenas out for days and days at a time for prominent citizens whose of fees are situated in the heart of the city, and 1t has been almost impossible to have them properly served with subpoena. In numerous cases we have called upon the clerks office for sub poenas for the purpose of ascertaining whether or not such witness had been summoned, and find the subpoena in the papers and no return whatever marked on the sheriff's return. thereby clearly demonstrating to our minds that the sheriff has not tried to do his duty. We recommend that this matter be looked into immediately, and if such be a fact, we further recommend that the county take such action as is deemed proper for the recovery of all such fees illegally collected.
 Failed To Serve Subpoenas.
 5. We have had it to occur that wit nesses would be attached for their non appearance before the grand jury, and upon Investigating the witness and also the returns of the sheriff we found that the witness had never be- fore received any notice whatever of such issuance and the grand jury were compelled because of its failure to get hold of the papers promptly attached such witnesses feeling that the sherin had done his duty, when in reality he had not. We will cite the instance of MT F. x. Wolhorst, prominent and substantial citizen of the county. This gentleman was subpoenaed by the
 haFA md