The Cordova daily times., 1921-10-04
NEGROES SAVED FROM DEATH
 IN CHAIR
By Associated Pressl


 of six Elaine, Ark, negroes twice convicted of murder in connection with the race riots. has been again remanded for retrial, which was set for October 10.
 The six negroes have been three times in the shadow of the death chair. On the two former occasions. December 27, 1919. and June 10. 1921, they were saved through executive clcmency and court action respec. lively.
 The negroes are Frank Hicks. Frank Moore, j. E. Knox, Ed Coleman. Paul Hall and Ed Hicks They were in diCted jointly for the murder of Clin- ton Lee. white resident of Phillips county, in which the rioting occurred. month after the outbreak of riots the negroes were tried and in record time convicted of murder and sen tenced to death, the court setting De comber 27 of the same year as the date for the executions.
 The negroes attorney appealed to the state supreme court, where the decision of the lower court was up held. Ia the meantime, however. exc cution of the negroes was stayed by ! the governor. pending the outcome Of | ( la, fn1 Ag ,{.r ,I- | convicted of murder in connection ] with the rioting. whose cases had been reversed by the supreme court The , latter six, Ali Banks, Albert Giles. Joe ! Fox, Ed Ware. John Martin and Will WOrdlow. again were convicted in the . lower court and appealed to the state ! supreme court again. Within the past | few months the cases of these negroes i again have been remanded for retrial. |
 The six Elaine negroes sentenced to die took their cases to the United States supreme court but this tribunal ! refused to review the cases on the . ground that no constitutional question 1 was involved Governor T. C. Mckay. ! 10. 1921, as the date for their exc {. cution Attorneys for the negroes in. stituted habeas corpus proceedings in the chancery court in Little Rock and 1. obtained a temporary injunction re- strainng penitentiary officials from executing the death sentence. The . state attacked the chanCery courts right to interfere in the ease and the ! supreme court issued a writ of prohi- | bition nullifying the injunction. but not until after June 10. Governor Me | Rae then set September 23 as the date ! for the electrocution. but a reprieve was again granted pending an appeal for new trial.
 Recently attorneys for the negroes applied to Associate Justice Holmes, during the summer recess of the Unit ed States supreme court. for a writ of error in connection with the state su- preme court decision. This was denied and the attorneys then filed with the clerk of the United States supreme court an application for a writ of certiorari providing for review by the full court of the state supreme courts action. This application now is pend ing.
 The other six negroes are to be tried during the October term of the Lee cir cult court at Marianna. a change from Phillips county having been granted.
 The negroes cases have aroused na- tion-wide interest, and thousands of dollars have been raised. principally among negroes of the country, to aid in their defense. Attorneys for the negroes have contended in all their arguments that the negroes were not given an impartial trial. and that the men for whose deaths they were con viCted, were not even known to them Recently in sOlociting funds in Ar kansas for defense of the negroes. prizes ranging from $50 to $2OO were offered to the individuals or organiza lions of the state obtaining the larg est contribution to the funds