The case of J.L. Hawley, prominent citizen of Rockingham, charged with perjury in connections with a denial of membership in the Ku Klux Klan will be argued in the Supreme Court Tuesday on an appeal by the State from the action of Judge A.M. Stack in quashing the indictment which was found in Richmond County Superior Court.
Hawley’s alleged offense occurred during the warmly contested trial of a number of alleged violators of the prohibition laws over two years ago, following a revival held in the town of Rockingham by the revivalist Baxter McLendon. An organization was formed called the McLendon Club, which became active in aiding in law enforcement and which included in its membership Secretary of State W.N. Everett, former State Senator W.L. Parsons and other prominent citizens of Rockingham. When the cases came to trial, a motion to abate was lodged on the ground that the grand jury returning indictment had contained members of the Ku Klux Klan, the McLendon Club and the County Board of Commissioners, each of which was alleged to have employed counsel to engage in the private prosecution.
In connection with the motion, Hawley, who was a member of the grand jury, filed an affidavit in which he denied that he was or had been “a Knight of the Invisible Empire of Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, sometimes known as the Kluckers.”
Later at a public meeting which was addressed by Rev. Oscar Taywood of New York, a Ku Klux organizer, Hawley admitted membership in the Klan and sought to explain his affidavit by the fact that it had contained the word “knight.” Hawley was publicly attacked by Senator Parsons and later was indicted for perjury.
The perjury indictment was attacked on the ground that it did not allege that the fact testified to was material to the issue being tried, a point on which the decisions of the Supreme Court are divided.
Another unusual case from the district is the appeal of J.J. Efird of Stanley county from a sentence of two years imposed following conviction for an assault upon a female. Efird, who is 62 years old, was charged with a criminal assault on his daughter who has since married. There was no evidence of the capital felony but the defendant admitted he “had laid his hands upon his daughter in an indecent way.” Under all the evidence of the offense occurred not later than 1917 and the defendant made a motion for arrest of judgment under the statute which prescribes that an indictment for a misdemeanor must be found in two years. The State contends that it raised its point too late in the trial.
This case presents a new question in procedure for the court to ??(last word obscured).
From the front page of The Goldsboro News, Nov. 6, 1923
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