The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-06-26
SIX ELAINE R|OT NEGROES ORDER ] REED BY COURT
Arkansas Loses Legal Bat tie To Punish Members
 Of InSurreCtion

LITTLE ROCK, Ark, June 26.-The six Elaine negroes whose release the state supreme court ordered yester- day, nearly four years after the mur- der for which they long faced the prospect of death in the electric chair, are free this morning.
 As far as known, the six are with friends here.
 The court today granted the peti- tlon of the defendants attorneys for dismissal on the ground that two terms of circuit court in Lee county brought to trial. The third trial was set in Lee county on change of venue from Phillips. county where the instruction occurred on the ground that fair trial could not be obtained in the Phillips circuit court.
 Counsel for the negroes said today that legally 15 days might elapse before official notice of the decision was given the attorney general and that if the state should ask a rehear- ing, defense counsel would next Mon day ask for their clients immediate release by writ of mandamus,
 Six Cases Pending.
 Six other negroes under sentence of death in connection with the up- rising In which several white persons and an undetermined number of me- groes were killed, await disposition of their case in federal court here. The defense counsel has applied for a writ of habeas corpus asking Judge Jacob Trieber to decide whether the negroes received a fair trial at Hell ena, in Phillips county.
 The negroes named in today's court decision are Ed Ware, Albert Giles, Joe Fox, John Martin, Ali Banks and Will Wordlow. The verdict of guilty on the first trial at Helena was re- name the crime of which they found the defendants guilty; reporting merely that they were guilty as charged. The second reversal was on the ground that there were no ne- groes on the jury. the supreme court holding that they did not therefore receive a fair trial.
 The scheduled third trial at Ma riana, in Lee county. was postponed on motion of the state.
 The so-called Elaine rioting oc cured in October, 1919, when an automobile occupied by white men was fired upon near negro meeting house at Hoop Spur, in Phillips coun- ty. Later developments showed that a large number of armed negroes were in the meeting house and that armed sentries patrolled the vicinity.
 In the disturbance which followed, federal troops were ordered to the scene from Camp Pike by Governor Brough, who accompanied the troops in person. Order was restored after two members of the Helena post, the American Legion, and other white persons had been killed. as well as a number of negroes.
 It developed that the negroes had been induced by agitators who passed themselves off as government agents to arm themselves and drill in prep aration for the time at which they were told they should take over con trol of the communities where they lived.
 Collections were taken in. many places for the defense of the negroes arrested in connection with the affair and nation wide interest was aroused In the case. In addition to the 12 defendants who have been sentenced to death, a large number were sent to the state penitentiary to serve terms of varying lengths