Friday, 21st November 1913: Jim Conleys Lawyer Prepares To Demand Trial For His Client, The Atlanta Journal
The Atlanta Journal,
Friday, 21st November 1913,
PAGE 1, COLUMN 4.
Attorney W. M. Smith Declares
He Will Take Action
in Be-
Half of Negro Some
Time
Next Week
Although no demand for a trial for
James Conley, the negro who says he assisted in disposing of Mary Phagans
after she was murdered in the National Pencil factory, has been filed, there is
every indication that such action will be taken by William M. Smith, his
attorney, next week.
Attorney Smith had a demand for trial
written and in his pocket Friday afternoon, when the criminal division of the
supporter court adjourned for the week, but did not file it, he says, because
Solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey desired to look over the document before it
went on the minutes.
Smith asserts positively that he will
file the demand, which means that Conley must be tried at this or the next term
of court in January, if the case is not tried next week.
Solicitor Dorsey has announced the case
will be called next week, but its trial depends on the attitude of Judge Ben H.
Hill, who, it is understood, does not consider it proper to allow the negro to
be tried until the supreme court has passed on the case of Leo M. Frank, who
was convicted of the Phagan murder.
As a result, it is expected Judge Hill
will block every effort to try the case next week. It is even expected the
jurist will question Attorney Smiths right to demand a trial on account of the
nature of the case. If the judge refuses to allow the demand to go on the
minutes, a writ of mandamus, it is said, will be the only course left open to
Conleys counsel.
MAY NOT ALLOW TRIAL.
If the demand for a trial is allowed to
go on the minutes by Judge Hill, it is considered probable that regardless of
the solicitors attitude that he will not allow the case to come up at this
term. If it is delayed until the January term it is possible the supreme court
will have acted on the Frank case, before the maximum time allowed by the law,
where a demand has been made, has expired for the Conley case.
To be consistent with his announced
police of protection for the negro, Solicitor Dorsey is not expected to do
anything to delay the trial of Conley, so when the matter comes up next week
its outcome will depend largely on the attitude of Judge Hill, and there is
little doubt that he will delay the trial as long as he can under the law. This
means that, regardless of demand, there is little probability of Conleys
actually going on trial until the January term which lasts through February.
It is expected that at the end of next
week, when the jail will have been practically cleared of felony prisoners that
the criminal division of the superior court will adjourn for the term in order
that the solicitor general can prepare his brief for the Frank case before the
supreme court.
PAGE 11, COLUMN 6
WILL
CARRY FIGHT FOR
CHILD TO SUPREME
COURT
The fight of J. E. Barlow, the Cuban
promoter, to regain his eleven-year-old daughter, Madeline, was not ended with
the decision of Judge Littlejohn, at Americus, sustaining the Stewart county
ordinary, who awarded the child to her mother, Mrs. Edith Barlow.
After a conference Attorneys Burton
Smith and Frank A. Hooper, who represent Barlow, stated they would immediately
carry the case to the supreme court on a fast bill of exceptions. The attorneys
will contend the ordinary had no jurisdiction in the case, the child having
been awarded to its father by the superior court that granted him a divorce.
PAGE 23, COLUMN 5
BARBER
MUST LEAVE
MOLER STUDENTS ALONE
A
temporary order has been issued by Judge John T. Pendleton, of superior court, restraining
G. O. Branning, a barber, from interfering with prospective students who come
to Atlanta to learn the barber trade at the Moler college, operated by Peter C.
Anderson.
Anderson
charges Branning has been meeting students, attracted here by the formers
advertisements, and carrying them to his own school.
He
asks the court to award him $5,000 for damage he claims has been done his
business by the competitor.