-
5. A Blot Upon the State
- University of Illinois Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
5 A Blot upon the State On the evening of Sunday, August 5, Sheriff David Julian, Deputies David W. Julian and Shoaf Poteet, and Police Officer Frank Cauble traveled to Charlotte to retrieve the suspects in the Lyerly murder case. The plan had been to return with the prisoners on the No. 8 train, which was scheduled to arrive in Salisbury at 4:50 a.m. the following morning. However, the party was apparently delayed by an unforeseen scheduling problem and returned to Rowan County by way of an alternative arrangement. Once in town, the lawmen discreetly escorted the detainees to the Harper Brothers’ stables to avoid curious onlookers. Solicitor William Hammer met the group at this location, having himself arrived in Salisbury the previous day. According to published reports, the fear among the prisoners was readily observable. In addition to the five suspects, two witnesses, W. N. Mitchell and Alexander Massey, had been brought from the Mecklenburg County jail to testify on behalf of the prosecution. Both had written earlier to Sheriff Julian charging that Jack Dillingham had confessed complicity in the Lyerly murders during his incarceration in Charlotte. While the two witnesses undoubtedly understood their importance to the state’s case, this knowledge offered little comfort. Mitchell, who had been the most vocal in implicating Dillingham, beseeched Julian to separate him from the rest of the prisoners, lest a lynch mob mistake him for one of the accused. The sheriff did not grant the request, and Mitchell and the others were taken to the county jail. Fortunately for the detainees, this last leg of their trek proved uneventful. Nonetheless, they were probably not encouraged by the seventy-five or so individuals who had clustered around the town square to stare at them as they entered the jailhouse.1 i-xx_1-228_Cleg.indd 116 9/15/10 11:36:42 AM A Blot upon the State 117 As the prisoners were being confined in cells, officials in the nearby courthouse made arrangements for adjudicating the crimes for which they had been accused. County commissioners had already drawn a grand jury pool from among eligible male residents two weeks earlier. This list of eighteen people was presumably all white, but geographically representative of the county. Several were from Salisbury, while others resided in townships such as Gold Hill, China Grove, Litaker, Atwell, and Franklin. On the surface, this selection, aside from the exclusion of blacks, did appear guided by a cognizance of the need to avoid choosing jurors from the vicinity of the crime scene. Still, there were a few choices that should have concerned the defense lawyers. The inclusion of J. T. Barber of Cleveland Township in the grand jury pool was potentially problematic given that the Lyerlys were related to Barbers and Cleveland bordered Unity Township where the murders had occurred. Moreover, T. A. Walton, a juror from Unity, likely had extensive exposure to a social climate inhospitable to the accused and thus may have been predisposed to vote in favor of indictment. Additionally, the empanelling of W. A. Benson of Scotch Irish Township should have raised similar concerns, since he was almost certainly related to Cornelia Benson, whose Rowan County Jail, ca. 1900 (unknown photographer) i-xx_1-228_Cleg.indd 117 9/15/10 11:36:43 AM [107.23.156.199] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 11:35 GMT) 118 chapter 5 murder four years earlier had precipitated the lynching of Harrison and James Gillespie. Despite these observations, only one of the eighteen prospective jurors was dismissed as ineligible to serve. The others were sworn in, and John S. Hall of Steele Township, which adjoined Unity along its southern boundary, was appointed foreman.2 Unsurprisingly, no Salisbury attorneys had volunteered to counsel the defendants, due primarily to the nature of the crimes alleged and fear of reproach by the local community. Further, county officials had been slow in appointing legal counsel, undoubtedly hoping to spare the Rowan bar the opprobrium that would have certainly accompanied any affiliation with the accused blacks. Upon their removal to Mecklenburg County, the suspects retained the services of Jake F. Newell of Charlotte and H. S. Williams of Concord . Comprising the firm of Newell and Williams, the two lawyers advised the accused blacks during their incarceration in Mecklenburg County and were responsible for crafting their defense for the special session of superior court. Although it would ultimately be difficult to judge how effective Newell and Williams were as counsel for the defendants...