The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-10-21
'BLOWUP IN FREY
CASE UNEXPECTED
Five Jurors Already Accepted
Discharged Along With
Special Venire.

b breakdown OF the Frey criminal
assault case Monday afternoon means
mat, when the trial Is resumed. prob
ably in two weeks, the selection OF a
jury will have TO be started all over
Not only were the 49, special yenire-
men who qualified for examination
Monday dismissed by Judge J. Ed Rich
ards, because OF objection by Ralnh
Davis, counsel for Frey, but the five
men VINO already had been selected on
me jury, also were discharged. The
reason Tor THIS; Judge Richards, stated,
was ina he felt ii would be unjust to
me five to keep them locked up for
the period OF time 1t will take the Jury
commissioners to get new names on the
Jury scroll, and the time II will take
Tor Sheriff Perry and his deputies TO
serve Jury notices on the veniremen
thus chosen.
The breakdown in the case occurred
ABOUT ego o'clock Monday afternoon. 1t
lCloWed an early adjournment OF the
morning session, when Ralph Davis
challenged the entire special venire
picked under the emergency clause to
ground for challenge was that the VEN
lremen were not selected from the body
OF the tclty and county, but instead
came largely from B~inghamton, Col
l%ierville and Wilmington. Mr.. Davis
charged that Sheriff Perry, one OF the
important witnesses against Frey, was
hostile to Frey. and that ne had at
tempted to get a jury hostile to the
defendant for that reason, Sam o,
BATES, states attorney, agreed to an
early adjournment of the morning ses-
sion. so that he might look into the
law In the case.
In upholding Mr., Davis challenge,
Judge Richards decrled the charge
made against Sheriff Perry, whom ne
defended as an honest official. But
there was no doubt as TO the truth OF
Mr.. Davis statement that a majority
OF the veniremen came from three COM
munitiea In the county. and that few
city men were hailed into court,
Because the jury commissioners had
no more names on their wheel, tho
Judge went a step farther than Mr..
Davis had asked, and dismissed the
jurors In the box, also,
Following this action, Mr.. Davis,
who demurred In the Mcnamara case
in going to trial because of the In
famed condition Of the public mind
against his client, took another rap at
the record. when he argued that his
client was not getting q speedy trial,
and demanded that the case be trans
criminal court, He was overruled.
The motion which Mr.. Davis has
made several times in the Frey case
the offer to let the attorney general or
the judge fill the jury box with 10 in
telllgent men which they might select
and 80 to trial with .them-also was re-
fused, The jury will be selected, In all
probability, by ean Of special We
hires.
One peculiar feature to the dismissal
OF the five men already on the Frey
Jury, was the fact that the state OF.
fered no objection TO their discharge.
1t almost looked as though, after ac-
cepting some man or men on the jury,
The state had become dissatisfied with
It's choice,
v lille the Frey case Is awaiting q re-
setting, cases OF lesser Importance viii
be disposed of--particularly cases whore
the defend ants are In jail, and unable
to furnish bond,