P.W. STEVENS
P.W. Stevens, a prominent and successful farmer of Camden County, had an altercation with a Negro last spring, after which he went home, armed himself with a stick in one hand a gun in the other, and went after the Negro. The evidence among other things showed that Mr. Stevens fired not less than four shots at this man when he found him. A jury in the Superior Court of Camden County last week found Mr. Stevens guilty of an assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. The penalty under such a conviction means a fine of several hundred dollars, imprisonment for several years, or both, in discretion of the Court. Conviction also means the loss of one’s franchise.
Judge W.M. Bond, presiding over the Court at Camden, saved one good vote for his party by setting aside the verdict and fining Mr. Stevens $25 for a simple assault. Judge Bond gave the defendant a lecture which entertained the court room and may have been embarrassing to the defendant, but Mr. Stevens is spared the ignominy of a felon’s classification and will continue to vote the Democratic ticket.
From the front page of The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Oct. 5, 1923
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