The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-06-04
SHERIFF CAzALAS WILL BE REMOVED Impeachment Is Sustained In
 Supreme COult THE RULING IS STRONG Justices Anderson and Mayfield Dis sent to Ruling of the Court.
 Great Interest Is Shown
 in Mobile Case.
THE RULING IS STRONG

Alexander M Garber Vs. bTank Cazdlas, Sr., sheriff, etc., appeachment proceed
 ings; order and judgment of court that the said Frank Cazalas, Sr., be and is
 hereby removed from the office of Mo- bile county"
 Such Is the terse ruling of the supreme court today In which a precedent is set for law and order that has no equal in the history of the south, according
 to men who have expressed opinion on
 the subject.
 Here is the cause: Negro kills popu-
 lar white man. Is sent to jail. Dead
 of night white mob of less than 20 kill him by hanging Citizens say sheriff had sufficient warning to protect prisoner.
 Court thinks same thing and, according
 to law, says he must get out of his place.
 The proceedings were brought about at
 the suggestion of citizens of Mobile coun- ty. who petitioned Gov. B. B. Conner in this behalf, the executive instructing the attorney general to begin proceedings on
 the showing made The case was heard in open court, taking up most of last week, during which time testimony on both sides in volumnious manner was brought out.
 The verdict was a great surprise, most of the people believing that the officer would come out without the loss of his office and the disgrace attached there
 unto. This opinion is justified by the
 dissent of two of the judges, Anderson
 and Mayfeld, who take the position that there ha n a
 officer, and that the worst fault that
 can be laid at his door is bad judgment Interest Is Shown.
 Great interest having been indicated all
 the week the court room was crowded
 today when the members of the court filed in. tip had come that the de-
 cision was to be given out so the feel ing was at the highest point. After minor
 matters were disposed of Mir Justice
 Simpson, writer of the opinion, began
 to read, after letting 1t be known in the | paragraph quoted above what had been
 agreed upon. He pointed out that the
 evidence indicated that the sheriff had not
 taken due precautions to protect the ne-
 gro who was lynched on the night of
 January 21, and that if he had the trag- edy would not have occurred
 Justice Simpson went over the testi-
 mony and laid great stress upon the evidence of J. H. Webb, a young law
 yer, who related that he told the sher-
 if in the afternoon of the day of the i tragedy that there was every indication that there would be a mob and advised
 him to prepare for defending the jail This information came as the result of
 a story told Mir. Webb by Mrs. Joseph Hodgson, a leading society woman, who
 had heard men on an elevator say that
 the lynching was to take place that night
 It was shown that in the face of this
 and other reasonable warnings, the sher-
 if went home and left no extra guards
 on duty or instructions to take precau-
 tions to prevent trouble such as he had been told was likely. This is a viola
 tion of the law as laid down in the constitution and the statutes and of such
 nature as to leave nothing else for the court today but order removal from of flee The court then goes into an elab-
 crate review of the case and the evil dence and reeites the history of the case and the incidents leading up to the filing | of the petition.
 Dissenting Opinion.
 The dissent of Justices Anderson and
 Mayfeld is embodied in an opin- l ion written by MT. Justice Ander- ! son, which is said to be one of the ! finest products of the Alabama courts | He takes issue with the majority, hold | ing that the sheriff had to go on his l own judgment and saw no reason, neith-
 CT was there in the evidence reason, to belt hot
 the negro out and hang him. The only | offense that can be laid to the officer | is an errof of judgment, which is not | in the eyes of the law, an impeach- 1 able offense any more than it is repre- -hensible when honestly brought about
 The majority opinion had recited that
 there was a cellar entrance to the jail
 that was used by the mob on the night l of the lynching, leading into the main part of the building by steel door, | through which no more than two men l could walk abreast and that this door 1 was open, eYidencing carelessness on the
 part of the officers. The dissent takes the | other view, holding that in case there had
 been attack from the other way and
 the doors had been closed and escape
 barred, would not the officers have been
 blamable If for this reason the man had | been caught and killed?
 No Doubt of Guilt.
 1 In holding that the sheriff should have 1 used every remedy possible to prevent l trouble, Justice Simpson concludes that | beyond a reasonable doubt the sheriff 1 was guilty of neglect, and that such neg | lect was impeachable offense. The 1 justice in another place puts 1t in this l way: If the common law, hallowed by its traditions, is wrong then mob law is right" The opinion also goes on to say | that while the new law is strenuous, it
 was the evident intention of the con 1 sttution makers to make it mighty hard | to allow a lynching and get out of it. | This is the first case to be tried under | the new law An attempt was made to | try the sheriff of Madison county, but | at that time the legislature had not | passed an act to put the new constitution | into effect The opinion of men well l posted Is that after this it will be all most impossible for sheriff to have a | lynching and not get into trouble over | it. the burden of proof being upon the | officer to show that he did everything | possible to prevent the outrage.
 Cause of Lynching.
 On Thursday January 21, Philip Patch, | a deputy serving under Cazalas, while attempting to arrest Richard Robertson. | was shot by the negro and died few | hours later.
 The negro was wounded, captured and | lodged in Jail. On the next day threats | were frequent but little credence was | placed in them, as it was known that | Sheriff cazalas had placed Robertson in | a strong cell, the sherln had been called |