They Stole Him Out of Jail by William B. Gravely

Author:William B. Gravely
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
Published: 2019-03-12T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

No Further Suspense

The summations stunned John Popham. He reminded his readers that while the defense presented no witnesses, these orators were all over the place with examples. The list included “King Solomon’s wisdom, the Book of Deuteronomy, tortures of the Middle Ages, Civil War devastation of Southern homes, the atomic bomb, and Northern publications and radio commentators to support their assertion that the accused were ‘victims of the incurable malady of meddler’s itch.’” Despite threats from the bench, the strategy worked, and “several times spectators indicated their approval.” Popham hoped for a calmer finale to the trial.1

For its last day Judge Martin brought his wife and three daughters to hear his charge to the jury. Roses in the girls’ hair and their “gay dresses” impressed West. She learned that “a professional bondsman” was one of U. G. Fowler’s three attackers. She regretted not going to the hearing where Fowler declined to file charges. Magistrate Bates Aiken mockingly explained, “He [Fowler] said he felt his bones would be safer if he left town.” Robert Bird found attorneys hanging around the trial, oddly claiming that Fowler was “not officially under the court’s protection.” Federal authorities monitored the situation but concluded not to intervene.2

West remained dumbfounded by the difference between the role of judges in England and that of U.S. judges. Martin could not “comment, discuss with, or intimate his views to the jury on any question of fact in the case.” Not all reporters paid attention to the details in Martin’s charge, though the News and Bird did.3 “Three hundred white spectators filled” the downstairs, while “one hundred Negro onlookers up in the gallery heard the judge’s words in silence.” Adults and children accompanied most defendants. All the accused “were lost in deep thought as the judge expounded the law.” Marchant, Noland noted, was “decked out in grey flannels.” The judge sat “under a wooden canopy bearing the carved emblem of scales of justice” and “a framed picture of John Marshall,” the early “Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.”4

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.