Muscogee COUNTY GA Court City (Columbus) Court Minutes April - 1903 File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Carla Miles milescng@juno.com http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/muscogee/court/sup1903.txt Court Minutes Summary from Newspaper The Columbus Enquirer-Sun Tuesday, April 14, 1903 Thirty-Cent Pineapple Cost The County Of Muscogee Nearly $40; The Term Of City Court Closes It cost the county of Muscogee about forty dollars yesterday to convict a negro boy of stealing a thirty cent pineapple. It was not the fault of the court that this happened, it was not the fault of the prosecutor - it wasn’t anybody’s fault, in fact, for it was almost accidental that such should prove the case. When the City Court took a recess Friday afternoon until yesterday morning it was thought that it would be necessary to try quite a number of other criminal cases before the jurors should be discharged. There were two or three cases and it was thought at the time that the cases against seven negro insurance collectors would be tried. When court met yesterday morning however, the situation was found to be different than had been expected. The insurance cases were continued; continuances were made in a number of other cases, several cases were not pressed, and a plea of guilty was made in one case. Thus, it happened unexpectedly that the only case to be tried was that of Isham Grier, a little negro boy about eleven years old, who stole a pineapple from the City Grocery Company. It is true that the eighteen jurors would have been on hand even if this case hadn’t been tried for the reasons stated above, however, it was so chanced that the thirty cent theft was the only case the jurors were called upon to try. The evidence was plain, the boy snatching a pineapple when he thought nobody was looking and running. But it chanced that a negro porter saw the theft and ran after and captured the boy. The defendant was represented by Attorney Hicks Fort, who made as able a defense as the most experienced lawyer could have put up, for he was forced to begin his argument with the uncomfortable admission that his client really had stolen the pineapple. The Georgia law provides that a child under ten years of age is irresponsible, and that between the ages of ten and fourteen years if it is prosecuted the state must demonstrate that it is of sufficient intelligence to distinguish between right and wrong. Attorney Fort made the point that the state had not demonstrated, satisfactory, that the boy could distinguish between right and wrong. He said that his moral training had been badly neglected; it must have been, he argued, since his mother had not even shown enough interest in him to come to court to attend his trial. The argument was a clever one, but the jury was inclined to the belief that the boy knew what he was about when he took the pineapple, and brought in a verdict of guilty. Judge Willis imposed a sentence of thirty days in jail, or a fine of $25. He warned the boy not to come before him again. Other Cases Eva Hall, colored, the woman who stole another negro woman’s wedding dress, pled guilty to larceny from the house. Her sentence was four months on the chain gang, to be discharged upon the payment of a $25 fine. The following cases were nol prossed by Solicitor Preer: Will Adair, assault and battery Will Adair, misdemeanor Oscar Holley, misdemeanor William Pitts, larceny from the house Harry Baker, misdemeanor The jurors were then discharged with the thanks of the court. After the drawing of the jury for the July term, court took a recess until Saturday, when the judge will pass upon a number of matters. Judge Willis has presided over the session in his usual business like manner, clearing the docket as rapidly as he could, handicapped as the court was by the fact that it only had one jury. At present when the jury is out, the court is stopped. If the jury is out four hours, the wheels of justice are blocked four hours. With two juries, Judge Willis could greatly expedite matters. The New Jury The following jury was drawn for the July term: B.A. Biggers M.E. Gray Wm. Cooper Gerson Rothschild G.H. Bowden J.C. Bentley C.L. McFarlan J.W. Bedell E.J. Bradley H.B. Slade R.J. Boyd Lafayette Ginn Arthur L. Smith C.F. Wade W.O. Scott J.W. Livingston E. Jungermann W.E. Silas Mr. C. Barlow W.T. Lambert I.W. Tharpe F.B. Boyce James M. Moon F.H. Abbott Harry Bruce B.T. Talbot Columbus Adams A.L. Jenkins M.A. Anthony C.M. Woolfolk ======================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or other presentation. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for FREE access. ==============