Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1922-04-22

|
tion between Superior Judge George
p Munro and the Muscogee county
grard jury over the presentn5nts of
the prand jury which are believed
to have cricized the court and which
Judge Munro refused to receive or
permit to be made pnblic had sub
sided today following the publica-
ton in local paper this morning of a
statement from the grand jury which
set forth the main recommendation
contained in the prescntments. The
statement contained not a word Of
| criticism of any court, and Judge
! Munro has made no report upon it
for publication. A statement from
him during the day is said to be pos
sible.
What caused the breach between
the grand jury and the court is not
known positively, but it ia believed
the grand jury ought to comment on
the handling Of liquor cases in this
county. The statement of the grand
jury as published stated that rec
ommendation of chain gang senten-
ces for liquor violators had been
made and that separate court for
Muscogee county outside of the city
of Columbus also had been recon-
mended. 1t also said it had recon-
mended more diligent pursuit of
bootleggers by officers and stern
handling of pistol toters. 1t also rec
! commended abolition of the fee sys-
TEN.
Liquor and Courts.
The published recommendation
close with the following paragraph
concerning liquor and the courts:
"The county has expended large
sums of money to apprehend and
bring to trial these law breakers and
the U. S. department of law enforce
ment has sent special representatives
to assist the state courts in sup
pressing the traffic in strong drink
and we believe that the time has
come and now is, when more dras-
tic measures should be used. There
fore, we most respectfully recon-
mend to the courts that Jail and
chain gang sentences be given to
blind tiger operators and bootleggers.
AS matter of fact, large or small
fines act as cheap license to en-
courage them to ply their trade"
After being discharged yesterday
by Judge Munro the grand jurors
met outside the courthouse and de-
cided to publish their statement. 1t
was expected they would publish that
portion of their presentments which
Judge Munro had forbidden and
thereby place themselves in contempt
of court. In view of the expressed
determination Of the court in talk
to the grand jurors when he sent
them back to. their room for delib-
GRAFTON after refusing to accept their
report, it was expected that the whole
grand jury would find itself ordered
to jail today after the publication of
the Objectionable matter. Inasmuch
as this did not appear, however, no
such a, contingency arose.
Judges Yelled Threat.
The feeling of Judge Munro was
expressed to the grand jury in the
following language as he sent thern
back to their room:
"Your body shall not intrude upon
my prerogatives and the respect and
dignity of my court. You shall lcc
nc perform my duty as | sat it and
you shall perform Yours under the
lars as | give ths I *: you as iGrors.
i am calm and unterrified, but deter
mined, gentlemen. If the worst
comes you will have brought it upon
yourselves. You may go to your
room, gentlemen"
The grand jury was in their room
| perhaps 20 minutes. Upon return
ing to the court room, the Judge ask
ed the foreman if the body was ready
( to make report, ,whereupon Mr. Dud-
ley proceeded. "If your honor
| please, after due and deliberate con-
sideration and careful investigation
and in view of existing conditions,
we feel disposed to cooperate with
the court in every way we can and
we have prepared presentment and
would like to read it in open court,
whsreupon the judges reply was "no
sir" and leaving the bench he call
ed w. H. Dismukes presentments
chairman, into the conference room;
a few minutes later the other jurors
were called in and Judge Munro ap-
peared somewhat agitated as did
some Of the jurors. 1t was evident
that his request to expunge had not
been complied with. A couple of
minutes elapsed and Judge Munro
entered the consultation room with
the jurors as referred to in the be-
ginning of this report.
/ Court In Disorder.
| At this iuncture tha court was