Raleigh, Oct. 13—C.W. Stewart and Elmer Stewart, father and son, sentenced at Southport yesterday to die in the electric chair on November 28, today were occupying cells on “death row” at the state prison here having been brought to Raleigh last night. The Stewarts were found guilty of murder in the first degree in the slaying of Deputy Sheriff Leon George and Deputy Marshal Sam Lilly.
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Southport, Oct. 12—In the quiet calm of a beautiful Sabbath afternoon C.W. Stewart and his son Elmer today hear the solemn words of Judge Henry A. Grady that sentenced them to die in the electric chair on November 28 for the murder on July 29 last of Detective Sergeant Leon George and Deputy United States Marshal Sam Lilly.
The verdict of the jury finding the father and son guilty of murder in the first degree, with a recommendation for mercy, was received by the court 30minutes later.
The elder Stewart heard the words of his doom with an air of stoical resignation, but Elmer forgot for the moment his sardonic smile of supreme indifference and his ruddy face turned ashen for the moment. He quickly recovered his composure however, and the old smile returned.
Shows Emotion
Mrs. Nearing, widowed daughter of C.W. Stewart, who has sat by the side of her father for the two weeks of the trial, burst into a flood of tears as she heard the verdict of the jury and threw her arms about the neck of her parent with abject devotion.
Sentence was formally pronounced a few minutes after 3 o’clock this afternoon, Judge Grady delivering an impassioned address to the prisoners before uttering the words that numbered their days.
“Now as you come to the end of your sinful journey,” the court said in a voice that quivered with emotion he could not suppress, “your sole comfort rests with that God whom you seem to have forgotten.”
The court overruled the defense motion to set aside the verdict and order a new trial, and likewise nipped the maneuver to arrest sentence on the grounds that the verdict as returned by the jury did not represent the findings of the members thereof.
In contention with this latter claim, Lorenzo Medlin, of defense counsel, offered to tender the jurors as proof but the court held that once a jury has returned a verdict that verdict is immune from attack by the members.
Object to Verbiage
The defense also registered objection to the wording of the verdict, which, in the language of the foreman, was “we find the defendants guilty of murder in the first degree, with the mercy of the court”.
This contention was waved aside by the court without argument.
The notice of appeal to the Supreme Court for a new trial was voiced by David Sinclair, youngest of the defense attorneys, and Judge Grady gave the defense 60 days in which to file exceptions. This appeal automatically stays execution of the defendants on the day named by the court, and assures them of immunity form death by the State until February, as the Supreme Court will have adjourned its present session before the expiration of 120 days allowed for the filing of exceptions by the defense and reply by the State.
It was exactly 8:30 this morning when the bell in the courthouse tower clanged upon the stillness of the still sleeping city, bearing the tidings that the fate of the Stewarts had been finally sealed.
It was 30 minutes later, however, before Judge Grady arrived, and the jurors, solemn of mein, filed slowly into the box. There was a moment of intense silence, then the clerk of the court inquired:
“Mr. Foreman, the gentlemen of the jury, have you agreed upon a verdict?”
“We have,” was the response of Foreman J.M. Batson.
“And what is that verdict?”
“Guilty of murder in the first degree, with the mercy of the court.”
Again that moment of tense silence and the clerk again found his voice:
“So say you one and all?”
There was a chorus of “Yes.” The jury, which was taken, and each of the defense then moved for a poll and the 12 answered to his name.
From the front page of the Wilson Times, Oct. 14, 1924
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073953/1924-10-14/ed-1/seq-1/#words=October+14%2C+1924
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