The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-10-21
Juryman Present Returned as Not Found and Initial
 Added to Name
ENTIRE VENIRE IS
 EXCUSED BY HEFLIN
District Attorney Bell, Appearing for Defense, Files 37 Objections to Venire-Six Capital Cases Are
 Passed to Be Reset

Because an extra initial was added to
 the name of B. w. Richardson in the
 minutes of the first division of the crimi-
 nal court, Judge Harrington P. Heiin ex-
 cused the entire jury venire yesterday aft
 ernoon for the remainder of the week,
 and all capital cases that were set for
 trial this week were passed to be reset
 The error will cost the county, it. is esti-
 mated, several thousand dollars in extra
 court costs.
 The following capital cases were ef-
 fected by the ruling of Judge Hefin.
 B. W. Richardson and Earl Schaefer,
 indicted for the killing of Yancy Madison,
 negro
 John Glover. convicted at his first trial for the killing of Isaac Fields. at Brighton. and sentenced to 1s years, but
 now up for a new trial.
 George Smith, indicted for killing John Maynard
 Walter Patterson, a negro, indicted for killing Tom Henderson, a negro. T. J. Pierce. indicted for killing Ernest Whitaker, a negro
 Sol Franklin and Lively vandiver in-
 dicted for the killing of Pierce Fulgrum. All of the above cases will have to be reset for some other capital week. and this is not thought to be possible this term, which will necessarily bring these to trial at some time next spring. Trouble All Week There has been trouble with the capital docket throughout this week and the or der of Judge Hefiins excusing the jury
 and passing over the cases came as a cli-
 max to a day of legal arguments on an
 error by the sheriff's office in making re- turns for jury service.
 The trouble began on Monday morning when the juries were organized by Judge Hef1in for the week. At that time the sheriffs jury returns showed that Will liam l.. Cash of Precinct 30 had not been found. However, William l.. Cash, who had been subpoenaed by mail. was in the courtroom and responded to his name and the legal pickering began as United States District Attorney Robert L. Bell. who is representing B. w. Richardson immediately filed exceptions with the court on the entire jury venire. It was then decided to resummons the entire jury venire with the name of Will liam l.. Cash added and to serve all the defendants with the amended jury list and continue all cases set for trial to yesterday. Judge Heflin on Monday aft ernoon ordered that the defendants in all capital cases set for this week be imme- diately served with jury list on which l the name of William l.. Cash was re- | turned as found. This was not done, ] | it came out in the arguments that B. W. Richardson. who is prisoner in the | county jail. was not served with his jury l list until sometime Tuesday morning which made Attorney Bell object still further that his client was not being
 brought to trial with due process of law. Box Attorneys Object Yesterday morning when the Albert r. l Box case was called for trial, White E. Gibson attorney for the defense made a l long oral plea before Judge Heflin on the 1 irregularty of the whole proceedings ow- l ing to the error in the jury returns, but
 he was overruled and the Box trial started
 before Judge A. H. Alstun. with jury se- lected from the protested venire. l After Attorney Gibson had been over
 ruled United States District Attorney
 Robert l.. Bell appeared with 37 written I objections to the jury venire and his ar guments took up most of the afternoon. | It was during MT. Bells argument that | Circuit Solicitor Joseph R. Tate discov- cred that the indictment read B. w. Rich | ardson and that in the count minutes il redu D. W. n. RiShdiusoH III scvcidl l places.
 1 Fearing to go to trial with such an error on the court minutes Solicitor Tate called the courts attention to the
 matter and asked that the Richardson case be continued until today or passed until reset.
 l Solicitor Hugo l.. Black having been told that there was something doing, left the Box trial and appeared before Judge Heflin, where he stated his ob- l jections to any postponement of any | of the cases as the extra initial was merely clerical error and meant noth- | ing in the eyes of the law.
 1 Immediately after Solicitor Black left l the courtroom Judge Heflin called the jury venire with the exception of the | Box jury and excused them for the re-
 mainder of the week He also ordefed
 that all cases set for this week with the exception of the Box trial should be passed until reset.
 During the arguments before Judge Heflin which lasted throughout the
 day there was. much criticism of the methods of the sheriffs office in serv- | ing jury subpoenas. The law requires that persons be served directly and ir Il person with the subpoena, but 1t was brought out that they have been mailed out in some instances.
 I Would Tax Costs on Blunderer ! Assistant Solicitor w. S. Welch re-
 quested of Judge Heflin whoever was