Monroe, Dec. 21—His appeal having been dismissed by the Supreme court, Young lee Hallman, ex-serviceman and member of a prominent family of Marshville, will go to the penitentiary during the first week in January to begin serving the 15 year sentence imposed upon him by Judge T.B. Finley at the August term of court after a jury had declared him guilty of criminal assault upon Miss Louise Tolbirt, a Cabarrus county school teacher.
The plea of the mother that her son be permitted to be with her during Christmas time earned Young Hallman a stay of execution, the solicitor who prosecuted him having agreed to allow him this short liberty when the defendant’s attorneys promised not to fight for a new trial. The dismissal of the appeal by the higher court was purely matter of formality, the defendant keeping his promise to the solicitor, not even presenting a single argument in his behalf.
“Southern chivalry that has always decreed that in a court of law more weight should be attached to the world of a woman than to the word of a man,” counsel for the defendant said yesterday, “prompted us to abandon Hallman’s appeal. There were errors committed in the trial, we believe, that would give us a new trial. But what would be the use? That same chivalry that prevented us from securing a verdict of acquittal in the first trial would operate to our disadvantage in a new trial. To secure the acquittal of our client it would be necessary for us to batter down this barrier. As it has heretofore proved impregnable, our efforts would be futile. It is best for all, we have concluded, to write the final court chapter in this case.”
Disavowing his guilt, young Hallman who was recommended for a commission as Lieutenant in the late war, declared his intention of going to the state prison with the determination to make a model prisoner. “I agree with my attorneys,” he said, “that it is useless for me to even hope to secure a jury that would place more credence in my testimony than that of the woman in the case. I told the truth at the trial, I am not guilty, but I yield to the inevitable.”
Mr. Hallman has made no application for a pardon. “It is my intention,” he said, “to leave the question of my liberty with the enlightened people of my native country. If at some future date they come to the realization that I have suffered sufficiently for which I was convicted, their intercession in my behalf would, of course, be gratefully appreciated.”
From the front page of The Charlotte News, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 1921
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