The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-10-08
STATE DECIDES ID PROCEED WITH THE OVERTON TRIAL AT THE REGULAR TERM Attorney General Martin Gives Out Statement
 After Conference With
 Solicitor Tate
WANT TO GIVE THE DEFENSE PLENTY
 TIME TO PREPARE
Preliminary Estimates In dicate That Trial Next Month Will Be Very Ex-
 pensive for Madison
By RICHARD F. LussrER

David D. Overton will be given trial at the regular fall term of the Madison county circuit court which convenes on November 20, at Huntsville.
 Overton, former circuit court clerk of Madison county, accused of the mur- der of Probate Judge W. T. Lawler, will go to trial first, and his alleged accom- plices Charlie M. Nails, another former circuit court clerk of Madison county, and Percy Brooks. ferryman of Hunts vile, will have their trials immediately following that of Overton.
 The above announcement was made yesterday morning, following an import ant conference between Attorney Gen eral William L. Martin and Circuit Solic- itor Joseph R. Tate, at the courthouse. Attorney General Martin and Solicitor Tate went carefully over the preliminary maneuvers of the Overton trial and the manner of conducting the trial itself was thoroughly discussed. After MT. Martin had been fully informed of what had been done by the state since the arrest of Overton, and what was proposed to be done, he stated to Solicitor Tate that in his Judgment it would be inadvisable to further press Chief Justice John c, Anderson on the subject of securing a special term of the Madison county cir cult court for an early trial of Overton NO RUTHLESS PROSECUTION
 According to the views of Attorney Gen eral Martin, public sentiment must be respected and the state must not be placed in a position of ruthlessly prosecuting Overton, without giving him an opportu- nlty to prepare an adequate defense. After some talk on this line Solicitor Tate agreed with the attorney general and 1t was then stated that no further attempt would be made to secure special term of the Madison county circuit court.
 No further efforts will be made to se- cure special term of the Madison coun- ty circuit court' said Circuit Solicitor Tate, following the conference with At torney General Martin, ''and our energies from now on will be directed towards preparing for the trial of David D. Over ton for the killing of Probate Judge Law Ter at the regular term of court That is only about six weeks off, and it will be monumental job to get ready in that short space of time
 It was decided at the conference that insisting on special term of court to rush Overton to trial within the next 10 days would appear as being over-zealous and Overton would have the opportunity or securing much sympathy by appear ing as persecuted. We have no desire
 
 have no desire to deprive him of suffi- cient time to prepare his defense and. therefore, it has been thought advisable to drop the matter of calling for a spe- cial term of court.
 ONLY A MANEUVER We really had no hope of trying overton even if we had secured a spe- cial term of court and this maneuver was merely to forestall the request for change of venue. We expect that the attorneys representing Overton will ask for change of venue, and if they had done so at special term of court we could then have been ready for trial in some adjacent county at a regular term of court in November. As it is now we expect that Overton will ask for change of venue at the regular term in Novem- Der, and we will combat that move with all the legal resources at our command If the change of venue is granted, that, of course, means several weeks delay, but not as much as had at first antici- pated.
 T hope that everything is being done in Huntsville to prepare for the Over ton trial on November 20 The case should be docketed and the subpoenas