"The Whitecaping Decision Affirmed."
- Title
- "The Whitecaping Decision Affirmed."
- Source Type
- Newspapers
- Publisher
- The Atlanta Constitution
- Publication Place
- Atlanta, GA
- Publication Date
- 04/07/1896
- Transcript
- The Whitecaping Decision Affirmed. The supreme court met today and took up the docket of the first division. There are several attorneys from the district here but most of them will arrive tomorrow. The only decision rendered today was the case of the state against Josephus Jowers and John Edwards, from the circuit court of Elmore county. This is the sensational case in which the two defendants and six or eight others went to the house of a defenseless negro in Elmore county last year, about midnight one night, and taking him into the woods whipped him unmercifully and finally shot and killed him. These defendants were shown not to be the mur- murderers, however. The decision of the lower court was affirmed today and the sentence of the defendants of ten years each was passed. Attorney General Fitts prosecuted the case in all of the courts through which it has passed and the conviction is quite a victory for him, as it has been no easy task to secure testimony in the matter for the state. This is the first case since that of Vincent in which the attorney general has left the seat of government to prosecute a case for the state in another county.