Newspaper Page Text
— Griffin Daily News Thursday, Sepf. 23, 1971
2
Pierce jurors picked
JESUP, Ga. (UPl)—With the
selection of a jury completed,
the prosecution is expected to
begin presenting evidence today
that William J. “Junior” Pierce
shot and killed an elderly wom
an storekeeper — one of nine
victims he is accused of mur
dering.
Nearly 50 prospective jurors
were interviewed before a pan
el of 11 men and one woman
was finally decided on to hear
Pierce’s trial for the January
death of Mrs. Vivian Miles, 60,
of Baxley, Ga.
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A force of state police was on
hand to assist local law officers
in this rural south Georgia town
in maintaining tight security
during the trial. The courtroom
was thoroughly searched before
the proceedings began, and
spectators were frisked for wea
pons in an effort to avert any
repeat of the unsuccessful at
tempt by six armed men last
month to wrest Pierce from
custody.
Pierce, a 39-year-old ex-con
vict who was paroled from
state prison against the advice
of a prison psychologist, was
escorted into the courtroom via
a back stairway by four depu
ties and nodded to his mother,
Mrs. Jewell White of Midville.
Most of the potential jurors
dismissed by District Attorney
Glenn Thomas Jr. and Randall
0. Palmer and Alvin Leaphart,
Pierce’s court-appointed law
yers, were either related to per
sons involved in the case, said
they were prejudiced by pub
licity or opposed capital pun
ishment.
However, Judge James B.
O’Connor refused to dismiss one
juror who said he was preju
diced against the state after
reading about Pierce. “When
you have publicity about a
case,” O’Connor said, “there is
much to be questioned about
whether the jurors can act im
parally.”
In addition to Mrs. Miles,
Pierce is accused of murdering
three other persons from Geor
gia, four from South Carolina
and one from North Carolina.
Before a change of venue was
granted and the trial was
moved from Baxley, six men re
lated to one of Pierce’s alleged
victims attempted to break into
the Baxley jail and remove the
prisoner.
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- — - — 9
Army Capt. Ernest Medina and his wife, Barbara, talk to
newsmen after the captain was found innocent of all charges
Medina leaving Army
ft. mcpherson, Ga. (upd
—Although his acquittal on
charges of being responsible for
the My Lai massacre leaves
him free to continue his 16-year
military career, Capt. Ernest
L. Medina says he wants out of
the Army.
“I don’t know exactly when
I’ll be able to leave, but that is
my intention,” Medina said
Wednesday while surrounded by
wellwishers.
Medina, 35, a Mexican-
American described by fellow
They threw a party after trial
ATLANTA (UPI) -Capt.
Ernest L. Medina showed up
at a victory celebration after
his acquittal Wednesday night
wearing a pink shirt and black
and-red striped bell-bottom
trousers. His wife was barefoot.
About 100 persons, including
They’ll exhume body
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (UPI)—
The body of Judge Harold J.
Haley, who was killed while
being held hostage in the 1970
Marin County Courthouse shoot
out, will be exhumed for a new
officers during his court
martial as “one of our finest
company commanders in Viet
nam” said he was convinced
his military career was ruined
by the trial.
“I wouldn’t want to waste
another year or two for
nothing” by staying in the
Army, he said.
Medina was the last officer
charged in the slaughter at My
Lai. The jury deliberated only
57 minutes, and the verdict
came at 4:19 p.m. EDT
the military judge, Col. Ken
neth A. Howard, also attended
the party thrown by Medina’s
civilian attorney, F. Lee Bailey.
“Captain Medina is the most
innocent man I ever defended,”
said Bailey, who has built a
national reputation in criminal
autopsy.
Ruchell Magee, charged along
with Angela Davis in Haley’s
death, argued that police
bullets killed the judge and not
a shotgun being held by three
in connection with the My Lai crimes. Medina told reporters
he would resign his commission in the Army. (UPI)
Wednesday. That was in sharp
contrast to the verdict in the
conviction of Lt. William L.
Calley Jr., which took 13 days.
One other officer, Col. Oran
K. Henderson, is on trial at Ft.
Meade, Md., but he is accused
of covering up the massacre,
not with the actual killings.
Twenty-five officers and men
originally were charged in the
March 16, 1968, incidents in the
South Vietnamese hamlet, 12
with participating in the actual
killings, 12 with covering up,
courts.
Bailey said Medina’s military
attorney, Capt Mark A. Kadish
of New York, would join
Bailey’s law firm in Boston
when his military duty ends.
Bailey described Kadish as a
“genius.”
escaping San Quentin convicts.
Magee was the only survivor
of the gun battle in which
Jonathan Jackson, younger
brother of black revolutionary
George Jackson, broke into the
courtroom of Haley and or
dered three prisoners freed.
They attempted to escape using
hostages and Haley was killed.
George Jackson was killed
last month in an apparent
escape attempt at San Quentin
prison in which five others died.
“Hie greatest monster since
u ‘KINeKONa’”
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IMPERIAL
and one with both. Os that
number, five were tried, four
were acquitted, and only one,
Calley was convicted. The
charges against all others were
dismissed.
All but one of the 102 murder
charges against Medina had
been reduced or dismissed
before his case went to the
jury. The one murder charge
involved the killing of a
Vietnamese woman Medina
said he shot in self-defense.
Medina said he feels his
military career has been ruined
by the My Lai publicity and he
will get out of the Army. He
has had several civilian job
offers, he said, but he had not
made up his mind on them.
Double Feature
"THE BLOOD
ROSE”
"THE BODY
STEALERS”