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PAGE TWELVE
Will the Frank Case
be Repeated in
Georgia?
O the Editor of The Jeffer
sonian: In the Leo M.
Frank case, of recent, history
to all American people, it
was stoutly maintained by
ED
all advocates of law enforcement that
the Governor, under our State Con
stitution, had no right to “re-open
the case,” unless it was made to ap
pear that material evidence favorable
to the accused had been discovered
since the trial, the consideration of
which would change the finding of
the jury.
In the Frank case, it was made to
appear that the condemned man had
had due process of law, in that his
guilt had been ascertained fairly and
impartially, and in the regular and
orderly way; that the verdict of the
jury had been reviewed by the Su
preme Court and the judgment of
that court was that the “evidence
supported the verdict.’’
The United States Supreme Court
held that the prisoner had not been
denied any right.
Therefore, when he moved for a
new trial, a new hearing before the
Governor of the State, asking that
his case be reviewed by the execu
tive branch of government, upon the
identical evidence heard by the jury
and reviewed by the Supreme Court,
his right to this sort of an appeal
was questioned.
Inasmuch as the Governor before
whom the matter was heard was
himself of counsel for the accused,
he of course ruled in favor of bis
own client, and against the Constitu
tion and laws of the State.
Consequently, fair-minded men
throughout the country condemned
the Governor and law-abiding and
liberty-loving Georgians demanded
the enforcement of the sentence.
The action of the “Vigilance Com
mittee” follows as the natural result
of righteous indignation on the part
of brave and earnest people, whose
laws had been outraged and whose
Constitution had been raped by one
sworn to uphold it.
The Thomas Edgar Stribling case
is now pending before the Prison
Commission, and it is stated that
Governor Harris will act when jje
“receives a recommendation” from
that body.
The question is, Will the Frank
case be repeated in Gtorgia, and will
Governor Harris do what his pre
decessor did—rape the Constitution
of his State?
The same issue in the Frank
case is involved in the Stribling case,
the application being based on the
same evidence heard and determined
by the jury and the courts. It does
not appear that any newly discovered
evidence is offered on tht part of the
applicant, and the sole contention
urged by certain parties for Strib
ling’s pardon is a promise made the
prisoner’s little daughter by the
Governor.
Test we forget, the charge against
Stribling was that he killed \V. E.
Cornett., in bis own home, at (tie
hour of midnight, by shooting him
in the head with slugs, as the help
less and unsuspecting victim was in
the act of retiring for the night.
Cornett lived in a rural community;
his home was a lonely spot, far away
from any policeman or sheriff, and
the only guard about his isolated
home was the
Did Thomas Edgar Stribling sec
and respect that sentinel on the watch
tower of human liberty and protec
tion to person and property?
He did not. The facts show that
he cared nothing for law. In Geor
gia be held it in contempt, just as
he did in Virginia where he is said
to have murdered a boy bj shooting
him in the back; where he brutally
whipped an old Confederate soldier
in his eightieth year; where he de
coyed a negro to his home and shot
1
his life out, because the morning
before this negro recognized him, at
the depot, as the escaped Georgia
convict; where he wilfully and inex
cusably cursed and abused two gen
tlemen of Danville, Va., which said
conduct on the part of the chief of
police of the town caused the mayor
to suspend him.
Stripling and his accomplice, Ter
rell Huff, also a brother-in-law, were
confined in the penitentiary. Strib
ling and Huff had an opportunity to
escape, and Stribling did escape,
while Huff refused.. Huff got pos
session of new facts and he put them
before Governor Terrell, and these
new’ facts clearly demonstrated his
innocence and put the crime entirely
upon the shoulders of Stribling, the
brother-in-law in crime and marriage.
When Stribling was caught in Dan
ville, Va., he was brought bac‘k to
Georgia, and the sentence of the law
was about to be again put into effect.
Whereupon a terrible wave of sen
timentalism was started by certain
parties, in certain quarters, demand
ing his pardon—not because he was
innocent of the crime charged, not
because any new evidence was found,
not because the laws of our State
had been vindicated, but simply and
solely because these sentimental folks
thought the Danville. Va., chief of
police had been a good citizen of that
State, and their plea amounted to
this: Let a red-handed murderer,
sentenced by a Georgia court on the
verdict of a Georgia jury, escape and
flee to a distant State, where, if it is
alleged he lived a law-abiding life,
he, according to these sentimental
ists, is entitled to immunity from
said sentence of the courts of the
State wherein his dastardly deeds
were committed.
That may be sentiment, but it is
not. common sense, and it is not
justice.
Governor Brown rendered his de
cision in the case, and held that it
could not be re-opened, unless they
made it appear to him that new evi
dence could be found. He would not
set aside a verdict upon the identical
evidence upon which a jury found the
man guilty.
That might not have been senti
ment, but it was common sense, and
it was justice, and it tallied with the
letter and spirit of our laws and our
Constitution.
Governor Brown refused to rape
the Constitution of his State. His
decision strengthened law enforce
ment in Georgia. He would not per
mit the executive branch to become a
court of review; and if Slaton had
followed that precedent, he would
have saved himself from almost uni
versal contempt, .at the same time
protecting and upholding the laws
and Constitution of this great State.
Stribling was confined to servitude
at the State Farm, where he now
boards.
Nothing more was heard of the
case until Governor Harris visited the
State Farm; and, while at the farm,
the “little girl” saw the “old Gov
ernor,” the two clasped hands, min
gled tears and the “little girl” won,
as usual.
That visit by our Governor was
not made until after our Macon Daily
Telegraph published some highly sen
timental stories about alleged bru
talities at the said farm. The Macon
daily published columns of “dope”
on the aforementioned subject. State
officials investigated the charges and
found that they were hatched at the
“hope” shops of the aforesaid daily
newspaper.
It is beginning to look as though
The Macon Daily Telegraph drama
tized this whole affair, named the
dramatis personae, printed the “dope,”
decoyed the “old Governor” down to
the State Farm, had the “little girl”
on hand ready to meet an old man,
known to have in his bosom a big
heart, and before whom a tender
faced, brown-eyed, innocent little
girl would wring from executive
hands a pardon for a convicted and
condemned father.
f submit to the people of Georgia
that not one sane reason is given
by any man, woman, official or news
paper why this hardened, wicked,
unrelenting and desperately red-
THE JEFFERSONIAN
handed murderer ans midnight as
sassin, Stribling, should escape the
consequences of thajt hjdepus crime
committed upon poor jEL Cornett,
in 189 7. ' '
They say that Stribling is in poor
health. Is that alone any reason
for his pardon? Must all criminals
in poor health be pardoned? Did
Chas..W. Morse catch “poor health;’’
and, when pardoned by President
Taft, did he not become a well man?
Law-abiding men and women en
counter accidents and disease; should
sentenced criminals be put upon a
plane higher than that enjoyed by
men and women not criminals?
When did the State of Georgia, or
any other State in the American
Union, undertake to insure the lives
and health of the criminals?
Luther Z. Rosser led Governor
John M. Slaton to his Waterloo. Will
Governor Nat. E. Harris, in the face
of this recent history and in spite of
it, permit The Macon Telegraph to
do as much for him?
GROVER C. EDMONDSON.
Alma, Ga,. Jan. 12, 1916.
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