Raleigh, Nov. 26—Nine members of the Durham county jail (jurors?) which tried Jesse Wyatt last week for the killing of Lawyer Stephen Holt of Smithfield June 1, have signed an appeal to Judge Garland A. Midyette so Durham people today apprised Raleigh folks, and the burden of their supplication to Judge Midyette is the saving of Wyatt from a prison term.
The Durham jury convicted Wyatt because there was nothing else they could do. There was testimony to the effect that he took his pistol, rested it on his left arm and fired at the automobile in which Mr. Holt and a party of Johnston men were riding. The jury did not believe that. Mr. Wyatt declared that he shot into the pavement and the bullet ricocheted, striking the lawyer from behind and killed him instantly. The jury did not believe that. It did not believe that in his great zeal to stop a car which had some evidence of a rum runner, Wyatt shot accidentally and too quickly, merely happening to catch the attorney in the range of the ball. There was the whole world for Wyatt and the jury concluded that a man who could not hit everything except the lawyer was careless. It gave him manslaughter and a recommendation for mercy.
Judge Midyette will follow the recommendation, but mercy ranges all the way from 20 years down to four months in prison. The judge could give five years and still feel merciful. The jury will probably decide the issue for him if it agrees unanimously on a sentence in jail with leave to hire out. Judge Midyette leans always to mercy. But he has never intimated that he would save Wyatt from prison.
Judge Midyette was prosecuting a similar case when called to the bench. He was solicitor and W.E. Woodfin, prohibition agent, had killed Grover Cleveland Bradley, Northampton blockader. There was considerable evidence that there was no excuse for killing Bradley But the federal government defended its representative and District Attorney Tucker appeared for him. Judge Midyette had then become judge and he never appeared again the case and federal jury quickly acquitted.
In that case Woodfin used his gun and there was no accident, but there was an element of self defense. Judge Midyette has no doubt that Wyatt when in good faith for a blockader and got an innocent man. But in 20-odd years it was the solitary break of Wyatt, who is the father of seven children, hardly any of whom are old enough to work.
The sentiment for punishment of prohibition officers who have been shooting rather wildly found a climax in Wyatt’s case and the Raleigh officer is the first real goat. Wherefore there is a lot of sympathy for him.
--Greensboro Daily News
From the front page of the Smithfield Herald, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 1925
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073982/1925-12-01/ed-1/seq-1/
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