The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1922-09-07
Moves TO Dismiss
Bigham Appeal

Edmund D. Bigham appeal on the
grounds that it was "manifestly with
out merit" The court took the mo-
ton under advisement and will rend-
er an opinion later.
The solicitor moved under Rule 80
for a dismissal and presented his
arguments to the court, claiming
that the appeal had no merit what
ever. A. l.. King and Mendel L.
Smith, attorneys for Bigham, resist
ed the motion.
Mr.. Gasque read the order of judge
S. W. G. Shipp declining a new. trial
when the motion was made before
him. Judge Shipp refused the motion
on a question of fact, the alleged
new evidence not being sufficient to
warrant a new trial, Mr.. GasQue said.
Would Not Change Result.
In regard to the IL letters on
which the defendant is basing his
plea for new trial, Mr.. Gasque said
both Bigham and his wife knew of
these at the time of the trial, but no
effort was made to produce them.
These letters would not change the
result of the verdict against Bigham,
Mr. Gasque argued. Among the let
ters was one in which Smiley Big
ham said he was going to kill all the
family and "leave no one to tell the
tale" He also said ''you will not see
me alive again. This letter is one
of the main ones relied upon by the
defense, but the solicitor said it
would not have changed the verdict
if it had been introduced.
Mr.. Gasque said an end to the liti-
CATION in this case should be reached
some day. He spoke of the first trial.
the appeal and the affirmation by the
supreme court and now this appeal.
cit looks like an endless chain of
litigation," the solicitor said. He
cited procedure to show that Bigham
may continue to appeal for many
more times and asked the court to
dismiss the present one as he did not
think it had any merit. 1t does not
come within any Of the requirements
set down by the supreme court for
an appeal, Mr.. Gasque said.
A. L. King, attorney for Bigham,
said the appeal had sufficient merit
to stay the execution of Bigham and
told the court that if there had been
no merit in the appeal it could not
have stayed the sentence. Mr.. King
dealt at length on the letters alleged
to have been written by Smiley Big
ham to Edmund Bigham. Mr.. King
also produced an affidavit from J. G.
Miller to the effect that Smiley Big
ham had told him in Florence prior to
the crime that he (Smiley) was going
to "kill everyone of them," mean
ing the Bigham family.
Another affidavit of much impor-
tance, according to Attorney King,
was the one in which Mrs. Margie
Black, sister of the Bighams, was
quoted as having said that the family
sent for Edmund to protect them
from Smiley, this being when Ed
mund was living in south Georgia.
Mr.. King also brought out the sui
eide theory, claiming that the coro-
ner himself when he first saw the
body of Smiley Bigham said lit cer-
tainly looks like suicide to me-"
Circumstantial Evidence.
Mendel L. Smith said the case was
one entirely of circumstantial evil
dence and had been built up on the
theory that Edmund came from Geor-
gia to kill the whole family. Mr..
Smith read the letter alleged to have
been written by Smiley in which
Smiley said he was going to kill all
the family, and stressed the fact that
eight experts in penmansh1p have
sworn that the signature to the letter
is Smiley's.
At this point Justice Watts said
from his experience with the family,
he having tried two or three of them,
the Bighams always did things differ
emily. This was in reply to a state
ment of Mr.. Smith.
Solicitor Gasque in reply told the
court Judge Shipp had examined the
letter alleged to have been written
by Smiley in which Smiley said he
was going to kill the whole family
and had found the signatures thereon
to have been traced. Mr.. Gasque
said the original signature was not
traced very good and part of the
lott