Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-06
ALDR|DGE PENALTY
UPHELD BY COURT
PoIiCeman's Slayer Must Die;
Moffatt Loses Fraud
Case Appeal.

William Lee Moffatt, stock broker,
convicted of false pretenses, and Alfred
Scott Aldridge, colored murderer of Po-
liceman Harry j. Mcdonald, must pay
the penalties imposed by the lower
courts, the District Court of Appeals
has ruled.
Moffatt must serve five years on each
Of two counts in connection with the
sale of stock of the Bankers Investment
Trust Corporation, the terms to run
concurrently. He has been in Jail a
year awaiting the result of the appeal
Aldridge faces the electric chair for
the murder of the policeman July 8,
1929, at Seventeenth and @ streets.
Basis of Appeal.
The decision against the stock broker
was handed down by Justice Charles
H. Robb Moffatt was said to have told
investors that the Riggs National Bank
was back of the investment concern in
which he was selling stock.
The indictment failed to state that
the Riggs National Bank is a corpora
ton, and counsel for the prisoner OBJ
jected when vice president was per-
mitted to correct the omission by his
testimony, and the point was raised as
error in the appellate court. Objection
court to require the Government to
elect at the conclusion of its case
whether it would urge the larceny-after-
trust or the falSe-pretense counts OF
the indictment.
In holding neither point reversible
error. Justice Robb points out that the
name of the Riggs National Bank was
brought collaterally into the Indictment
to show the false pretenses, and 1t was
not necessary to describe 1t with the
minute detail that would have been
necessary had it been named as the
owner of the stock or other subject
matter of the indictment.
Since the trial justice required the
prosecution at the close of all the evil
fience to make an election, the court
held the prisoner was not prejudiced.
Death Penalties Upheld.
The decision against the colored man
was rendered today by Justice josiah
A. Van Orsdel.
The court overruled the contention OF
counsel for the prisoner that 1t was
error for the lower court to refuse to
permit an inquiry Of prospective Jurors
If they entertained racial preJud1ce In
a case where the defendant was colored
and the victim a white man and tnat
a miStrial should have been granted
sight of the bullet supposed to have
passed through his body and lodged IN
the automobile in which he was riding.
Because the counsel waited until
after the trial had commenced before
making a point that he had been served
with the copy of previous indictment
instead Of the one under which the case
was proceeding, the Appellate Court
held he waived the point. There was
no difference between the two indict-
ments except as to number and date,
the court pointed out.
Aldridge and his brother had been
surprised in an attempt to rob drug
store in the vicinity of Seventeenth and
@ streets and Mcdonald had placed
them under arrest and had taken them
to his automobile to convey them to a
patrol box On the way the prisoner
shot the officer and escaped, but his
brother was killed by Mcdonald. Later
Aldridge was apprehended and declared
he was "ready to take his medicine"