The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-12-07
Knight Openly Coaches Price
Girl on Stand at Decatur
Forms Answers with Lips, Signals to Her
with His Pencil When I. L. D. Attorney
Traps Her
BY JOHN L. SPIYAK

that 1t was not enough.
'SThat will dol" Callahan rosred,
sIapping his palm down on the bench.
THAT will do, Mr.. LeibowitE. l said
that will dol"
Leibowitz, knowing that the judge
was aching for an opportunity to hold
him for contempt Of court, desisted.
There was nothing to be gained by
going to jail-and the record showed
the prejudice and unfairness Of the
judge.
Judge Faiis to Consider Possibility Of
AcquittaL
After three days of this sort OF
farce that Alabama calls justice came
the courts now world famous charge
to the jury. For one and a half
hours he read from notes He touched
upon everything that the jury needed
to convict Patterson and not ONE
word did he utter of instruction
should the jury want to acquit the
defendant. It was not until both
Leibowitz and Knight rushed to the
bench and called his attention to 1t
that he added a few weak words of
instruction should they find the de-
PENDANT innocent.
This charge in itself is undoubtedly
the rawest charge that was ever made
in this country, scene of so many raw
cases. But at least in the Tom Moo
ney case, in the Sacco- Vanzetti case,
in host of other cases, the judges,
no matter how prejudiced they were
against the defendant, made q pre-
tense to law. Here there was not
even the slightest pretense to law or
justice.
Patterson was q "nieger" and It
didn't matter.
Southern Correspondents Soft Pedal
Raw Deals.
If Northern newspapermen had not
been present at the trial the world
would never have known how utterly
disgusting was Alabama's Justice" in
this case. Only the Northern report
ers told what was happening in the
court room. The rest Of the world,
getting its news from the Associated
Press, United Press and International
News Service, got the facts In the
case, with the most important facts
buried in the heart OF the story In a
paragraph or two.
1t was that way during the Spring
trial with the exception OF the Inter-
national News Service which had
Carter Brooke Jones covering 1t. This
time the deliberate burial and sup
preston of news was so evident that
even conservative reporters like
Daniel and Raymond could not avoid
noticing it and commenting upon it.
The first motion Leibowitg made
for a mistrial on the ground that the
judge was deliberately prejudicing the
jury against the defense happened
some ten minutes after court opened
one morning. Present were David
Davenport of the Associated Press,
Ralph Hurst OF the Birmingham
News Age Herald, Ben Cothran OF
the United Press and myself. Daniel,
Raymond and Cassidy did not come
in until some fifteen minutes later.
When Daniel asked me If anything
had happened I told him about CAL
lahan's accusations against Leibowitz,
oAi@O AAC woo u yAAiB w 1uiptbIl1 flC1~
Gus" ideas about Victoria Prices chaS-
tity into the minds OF the jury, Leibo-
witz' move for mistrial and Gala
hans apology.
Ben Cothran edged over and offered
Daniel his running story of what
had happened.
A. p. Buries Story OF Jury Roll
Forgeries.
That Leibowitx had made a move
for mistrial was given in q line.
There was not a word about Gala
hans using the word vicious" Leibo-
witz' protest and Caliahans apology.
Neither was there mention of it
in the A. P. or Hurst's copy.
During the entire trial this DELHI
crate overlooking Of important news
that was against the state was evi-
dent. When the Jury roll forger-
les came out 1t was national story.
Here, for the first time in Southern
history, the South had confessed that
they deliberately Disseminated
against Negroes on jury rolls by try
ing to forge the names of Negroes.
Yet that very story and the actual
facts Of the forgeries were buried