Change of Venue Helped in Sidney Kincaid Murder Trial, Aug. 21, 1921

The jury which convicted Sidney Kincaid, the Burke county wife-murderer, was composed of citizens of the neighboring county of Lincoln. We do not raise the presumption that Kincaid would have been acquitted had a jury of his own fellow-citizens sat in judgment upon the evidence in the case, but his standing in the community, the fact that he enjoyed some of the prestige of leadership and the influence of strong friends might have militated to some extent against the finding of the right verdict in this case.

The State was not prejudiced against the defendant that it asked for a jury from another country, neither did the State want to be prejudiced in its efforts to convict him. What is sought was a fair trial before a jury of unbiased and competent men, such men as would allow nothing but the bare truth of the testimony to get into the box and who would finally find their judgment in nothing but the facts.

The conviction of Kincaid and his sentence would seem to be such as ought to meet with the satisfaction of the people of the State who are in favor of no immunity from punishment for any classes of people when they have gotten down and sprawled in the wretchedness of criminal depravity. Kincaid, no matter how highly esteemed he may have been, nor influential, nor potential in politics, killed his wife when he was drinking liquor and under its influence, under circumstances that are particularly revolting. He is entitled to no more exemption from punishment in correspondence with his crime than the humblest negro in North Carolina. The law never distinguished color, neither has it regard for wealth or position or office or prestige.

From the editorial page of The Charlotte News, August 21, 1921