A look back at trials
In recent weeks, the attention of the nation was focused on a court trial in Florida. Stories related to trials are a mainstay of the news.
April 11, 1895 – The crowd of moonshiners and witnesses now in Huntsville for the holding of court is the cleanest lot that ever hung around the courthouse. A stranger, who is attending the U.S. court sessions, was held up and robbed in West Huntsville last night. The man was drunk when he fell into the hands of the thieves, but the loss of his wad sobered him sufficiently to inform the authorities of how he had been a stranger and they took him in.
Feb. 1, 1902 – Morgan County Judge Osceola Kyle was banqueted and was toasted by the Decatur Elks Lodge tonight. The banquet was congratulatory to Lt.-Col. Kyle upon the outcome of the court martial trial held in Montgomery in which Col. Kyle was tried upon charges preferred by a fellow-colonel. He was fully exonerated by Gov. Jelks.
Jan. 12, 1907 – After being out for over 30 hours, the Morgan County Circuit Court jury in the case of Clift Way, charged with the murder of Decatur Policeman J. Lem Jones, announced this afternoon that they could not agree. They were then discharged by Judge D. W. Speake. The jury stood nine for death by hanging and three for acquittal.
Dec. 2, 1909 – Judge Thomas W. Wert is presiding over the December term of the Morgan County Law and Equity Court this week. Quite a number of small cases are on the docket for trial. A great many country people are in attendance.
March 1, 1912 – A play simulating a genuine “breach of promise trial” is currently being put on at Masonic Theatre for the benefit of the Methodist Church. It involves a man jilting the young lady to whom he had previously been engaged to be married.
July 22, 1916 – The case of the State v. Sharp is currently being tried in the Morgan County Law and Equity Court. The trial is one which has attracted a good deal of attention and the courthouse is crowded with spectators from all sections of the county.
July 29, 1916 – Archie Lamon, formerly a grocery merchant in Morgan County, was charged with stealing a horse some time back. The case was set for trial at the present term of court, but has now had to be postponed because Lamon is now in the Jefferson County Jail in Birmingham on the charge of stealing another horse in that county.
Sept. 26, 1926 – Prosecution testimony in the case of State v. Davis closed yesterday morning. The defendant is charged with second degree murder in connection with the death of Robert Howell, a Hartselle youth. Immediately after the close of the state, the defense put a witness on the stand who claims to have been an eye witness to the slaying, which took place on upper Second Avenue, the main Albany thoroughfare. The defendant also told his story of the killing and stood up under the fire of stiff cross examination. He was given a sentence of 40 years on a charge of second degree murder in his first trial but the Alabama Supreme Court ordered a retrial owing to the admission of evidence which should have been excluded.
Aug. 11, 1929 – The defendant in the case of State v. Ledlow, recently sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly allowing his 14-year-old son to bleed to death after shooting him, has applied to the circuit court for a new trial on the basis of an insanity plea. The defendant’s wife testified that her husband shot their son in a sudden fury when the lad failed to obey a command to keep quiet in bed.
