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The Atlanta Constitution,

Saturday, 27th September 1913.

PAGE 5, COLUMN 3

Prominent Attorneys Are Placed

Under Bonds of $200 for

Courthouse Difficulty.

Burton Smith and Reuben R. Arnold, prominent Atlanta attorneys, the later president of the Bar association, were indicted for assault and battery yesterday by the Fulton County grand jury and are held under $200 bonds each.

The fight which brought about the indictment occurred [on] May 22, [1913] when depositions were being taken in the fight to break the will of the late Joshua B. Crawford. Attorneys Smith and Arnold were representing the widow, whom it has since been charged poisoned her husband, and C. W. Walton and W. H. Byrd took offense at a remark they allege Attorney Smith made to a woman witness in the case. The affair took place outside the courtroom in the corridor.

In the indictments it is charged that Attorney Smith assaulted Walton, and that Attorney Arnold assaulted Byrd. By a coincidence, Henry Y. McCord, who led the fight in the gubernatorial race for Senator Hoke Smith, brother of Attorney Smith, was foreman of the grand jury which returned the indictments.

A "no bill" was returned on the indictment drawn against John C. Cox, an attach of Attorney Arnold's office, whom it had been charged assaulted Walton during the affair.

PAGE 5, COLUMN 3

JUDGE ROAN TO HEAR

LEO FRANK PETITION

Feels It His Duty to Wind Up

Case Before Going on

Appeals Bench

That he regarded it as his duty to hear the argument in which Leo M. Frank, convicted of the murder of Mary Phagan, will ask for a new trial, was made plain yesterday in an unofficial statement by Judge L. S. Roan, who presided over the famous murder trial which lasted for nearly a month during the summer. Judge Roan feels it is his duty to wind up the case before leaving the superior court.

Judge Roan is soon to take his place on the court of appeals, and Judge Benjamin H. Hill will become a superior court judge of Fulton. The hearing is set for October 4, and it was believed that should it be postponed that someone other than the trial judge would hear the motion for a new trial.

Since Judge Roan's statement, however, it appears that he will remain on the Fulton bench long enough, if possible, to allow the case brought before him. Both the state and the defense are understood to desire that the judge who is already familiar with the details of the case, through hearing it, be the one to pass on the question of a new trial.

Both sides are working in preparation for the hearing, which, however, may be postponed from the date set. Should the defense be refused a new trial by the superior court judge the case will be taken to the supreme court, and, if possible, to the United States supreme court.

 

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