The March term of the Superior Court for the trial of criminal cases opened here this morning. Hon. N.A. Sinclair of Fayetteville is the judge presiding and Hon. Clawson l. Williams is the solicitor in charge of the docket.
Judge Sinclair cut in on his charge to the grand jury without any fancy work. He told them that they constituted the most powerful agent of law and order that exists under our laws, and he stated that their duties were correspondingly heavy. He laid great emphasis upon the need of a carefully revised jury list, which should be done biennially, according to law. And above all he charged that these men should be qualified before their names should be enrolled upon the jury list. Two disqualifications that he mentioned were lack of good moral character and lack of sufficient general intelligence to know what a juror’s duty is. If these two elements are allowed to get into the jury box, the fountain of justice will be corrupted, and the courts will fail to function.
The criminal docket contains nearly a hundred cases. The grand jury went about their duty and the court began the trial of cases, several cases being disposed of during the day. Mr. R.D. Dunn of Bentonville township is foreman of the grand jury, and the following are the other members of the body: Joseph Holly, W.A. Green, R.D. Dunn, L.A. Wilson, W.E. Barbour, A.R. Bass, W.A. Richardosn, D.R. Peedin, F.F. Siler, D.A. Hinton, M.J. Puckett, C.K. Pleasant, J.M. Barbour, J.Q. Baker, J.C. Strickland, J.C. Wellons and W.J. Langdon.
From the front page of The Smithfield Herald, Tuesday, March 9, 1926
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073982/1926-03-09/ed-1/seq-1/
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