Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1912-08-17
FIGHTING HARD
 FOR RHEA'S LIFE Attorney Pindall Says It Was "McCullooch's
 Mistake" :"
REVIEWS EVIDENCF
A Chancellor, Circuit Judge, Jury of Twelve and Supreme Court Have
 
 All Adiudged Him Guilty.


 utter depravity, and the hardness ot feature of persons accused of murder would unhesitatingly admit that " s. Rhea does not meet the require ments.
 Not in years has there been SC determined an effort to save a man from the gallows as that being put forth ill behalf of w. s. Rhea, a young plantation manager, who has been condemned and sentenced td hang on the charge that he led a mob of negroes that killed a white officer for having arrested negro charged with a felony.
 His three sisters are doing all in their power to aid him in the estab- lishment of his innoncence, and his counsel, former governor X. o. Pin dall, could not be more thoroughly and earnestly devoted to his cause if he were a brother.
 "McCulloch's s Mistake" is what MT Pindall calls the attitude of the Su- preme Court. MT. Pindall is so thoroughly imbued with a belief ill Rhea's innocence that he cannot un. derstand how any one else can think otherwise in the face of circumstances and evidence that appear to him in- dubitable. And yet a chancellor, q circuit judge, a jury of twelve, the Supreme Court of five and the gov ernor have all given it as their be- lief that he is guilty. Now the case is With the Supreme Court of the United States upon writ of error attacking the validity of the court which tried him, which issue had also been determined in Jefferson county case adversely to his contentious.
 Rhea is a member of a pioneer family of Harrisons that came from Kentucky in the early days, and his father died when his son was five years old, leaving the boy to be rais- ed by his mother, who died four years ago. His sisters, Mrs. Loula Weatnerall, Miss Mae Rhea and Mrs. G. E. Dodson, have worked for him day and night since has been in jail.
 We expect to stay by him till it is settled says Mrs. Weatherall, for we know our brother never killed MT Archard. We have done no more than our duty for our brother, for he would have done the same for one of us"
 Rhea, under all circumstances, has steadfastly maintained his innocence, even under the severest cross-ques- tioning by Governor Donaghey on the occasion of a recent visit to the execu- tive chambers. His counsel declare they will fight for his life until every possible recourse has been exhausted, and Rhea himself declares that his execution as murderer would be a lasting disgrace upon the name of jus tice as administered in Arkansas.
 It is claimed by the defense that as many as fifteen new witnesses have been discovered since the trial, the affidavits of many of whom have been presented to the governor, and some of them examined by him, to the eff feet that Rhea did not leave the house on the night of May 13, 1911, when Constable Vital Archard was slain, five of these witnesses having seen the armed mob of negroes within 100 yards of the scene of the killing.
 .'The case has this unique feature said Mir. Pindall, in discussing the "it is a case that has been in the courts since May, 1911, in which the defendant has lost practical ly on every contention, receiving only the temporary benefit of an appeal to the Supreme Court. Yet in truth citi- zens of the affected county doubt his guilt and a majority believe him in- nOcent. It is case l would charac- .erize as McCulloch's mistake, McCul- och being the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
 "The policy Chief Justice McCul- och has adopted, and which, because If his influence with the rest of the ,ourt, is the policy which governs, is hat of affirming all cases ill criminal matters where the result appears to 'e right upon contemplation of the whole case, irrespective of the con entions for reversal, unless it is ap- aren't that errors of law have been committed, or that there is no evil ence which, if true, would support ae verdict. The tendency of modern mes seems to bring about this view