Opinion ID: 2447827
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Burnis Martin Case

Text: The respondent, Burnis Martin, is the duly elected Commonwealth's Attorney in the thirty-first judicial district, which consists of Floyd County. On Thursday, April 23rd the fourth day after Judge Grauman commenced the trial of the second five cases, an advertisement, four columns wide and eighteen inches high, appeared in the Floyd County Times, the local newspaper at Prestonsburg. Martin's picture appears in the upper left hand corner of the advertisement, and to its right appears in bold head lines, Martin stands alone at the court house. In the first half of the advertisement Martin refers to five men, namely, Henry Stumbo, Woodrow Burchett, Ellis Martin, Milt Stanley, Banner Meade. Thereafter those named were referred to simply as They or these men. The advertisement speaks of rumors of his murder, impeachment, disbarment and of smearing law suits to be filed against him. The inference is inescapable that these men were at the bottom of such expected action. The following is the language on which the Complaint is based: It appears that these men through their political links and secret contracts have brought pressure to bear upon the Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals to force the Hon. Lawrence F. Speckman, Judge out of the last five tax-payers cases, after he was appointed, qualified, came to Prestonsburg, and after he had held hearings in the cases, and even after he had told the `Court-house' defendants that he wanted to try the cases, and told these men that he would resign, only if the Chief Justice forced him to. Under what law or authority does a Chief Justice have the right to dictate to a Circuit Judge on a procedural matter in a Circuit Court? They have fired the honest judge. They have discharged the elected commonwealth's attorney over his protests. And only God knows what they will do next. We think that the readers of this paper would conclude from this article that Martin believed or knew that these men could control the Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals of Kentucky. We can think of nothing more calculated to destroy the faith of the people in their Courts than the statements contained in the article. It creates the impression that the Chief Justice of our highest court is under the control of the people who would murder to obtain their ends. The evidence shows that the Chief Justice was not even acquainted with any of these men.