Judge Devin, who is presiding over the criminal term of Superior Court being held in this city, flayed the methods used by the county magistrates in issuing warrants against defendants and remarked openly in the court that it should be stopped.
Judge Devin’s remarks came after he was informed that William Butler, colored defendant, who was being tried on a charge of assault with deadly weapon, was not serving a 60-day sentence on charges of disorderly conduct and being drunk, and was bound over to Superior Court on a third charge of assault with deadly weapon all of which were the result of a drunken spree of Butler’s, and which took place at the same time. The prosecuting witness had warrants issued for assault with deadly weapon, and the magistrate issued others, causing Butler to spend 60 days on the road, while awaiting trial on the assault charge.
Judge Devin, after placing the case in the hands of the jury, who returned a verdict of guilty, and the judge has sentenced the negro to 30 days on the roads, suspended the judgment in the case, allowing the defendant to pay the costs.
His honor stated openly to the court, “If the county magistrates would issue one warrant against defendants charging them with the offense committed, instead of allowing three measly cases to be the outcome of one drunken spree, the courts would be 100 percent better off. The dockets would not be near so congested.”
From page 2 of the Wilson Times, September 9, 1924
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073953/1924-09-09/ed-1/seq-2/#words=September%2C+9%2C+1924
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