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Title
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Protracted 'Investigation' In Wetumpka
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Source Type
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Newspapers
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Publisher
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The Montgomery Advertiser
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Publication Place
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Montgomery, AL
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Publication Date
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12/03/1966
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Transcript
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Protracted 'Investigation' In Wetumpka ELMORE COUNTY authorities have had the better part of two weeks to take some action or indicate that arrest or grand jury action would be forthcoming in connection with the death of James Earl Motley, a Negro construction worker. Negro witnesses said Motley was "beaten to death" by arresting officers. Other witnesses, including whites, have told the press circumstances surrounding the case. From all that is known, many of these have not been called in the "investigation." This much seems clear beyond cavil: had the situation been reversed, had the victim been a white officer or ordinary citizen and the accused a Negro, an arrest would have been made forthwith. In all probability, a special grand jury would have already been empaneled as well. The toxicologist's report has been made but not made public, as specified by law. There has been sufficient time for the Wetumpka investigation to produce something other than repeated announcements that it is still continuing. The press may be accused of pretrial publicity of the kind a wild-eyed committee of the American Bar Association decried in October, a report which has been roundly denounced from one end of the country to another, particularly in the white south. On Oct. 4, William B. Dickinson, president of the Associated Press Manager Editors Association, said of the proposal to stifle all press accounts before trial: "In instances where the police or other law enforcement authorities are corrupt, these rules could be used to cover up secret arrests and, indeed, secret trials. . ." The Advertiser commented Oct. 9: "The functions and agencies of justice belong to the people, who are represented by the press. The press has been responsible, in recent times, for far more disclosures of official hanky-panky, sloppy investigations, violations of rights of the accused and police coverups than it has for prejudicing the rights of defendants by sensational journalism." Because of local, state and national interest in this superficially ugly case, and because of apparent foot-dragging by officials responsible, the press has been forced, by default of those in charge, to publish facts and interviews about the circumstances surrounding Motley's death. Surely, Elmore County authorities will not permit this to be another case, in a long line of them over recent years, wherein the federal government is forced to act because local officials refuse to do their duty.
