Friday, 21st November 1913: Jim Conleys Lawyer Prepares To Demand Trial For His Client, The Atlanta Journal

Reading Time: 4 minutes [659 words]

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.