DATE OF HANGING NOT FIXED.
But It Is Expected That June 8 Will be the Day.
The Respites Will Extend the Day of Execution Beyond the Next Session of the Superior Court, When Judge Mitchell Will Have to Read Death Sentence for Them Again.
FIGHTS GULLS FOR HIS LIFE
Terrible Battle With Birds by a Boy Marooned on a Maine Island.
Showing plainly the marks of his battle for life with thousands of storm-terrorized sea fowl on Eagle Island ledge.
(From Tuesday’s Daily.)
The Atlanta Journal which reached here this morning says:
“The respites for J.G. Rawlings and his two sons, Jesse and Milton, and Alf Moore, colored, under sentence of death for the killing of the two Carter children near Valdosta, which will be granted by Governor Terrell Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning, will probably stay the execution until June 8. Several technicalities concerning the granting of the respites prevented the governor from issuing the staying order Monday. The chief executive will issue the respites within the next few days, as the condemned men are sentenced to be hanged next Friday.
“It is understood that the respites will continue after the next session of the Lowndes county superior court, when Attorney John Randolph Cooper, who has represented the defendants, will introduce startling evidence, which, he claims, will warrant the granting of a new trial.
“Thirty days will be required before the mandate of the United States Supreme Court, which refused a new trial to the defendants, can reach Atlanta, when a remittur will be issued by the state supreme court to the superior court of Lowndes county. A minimum time of 12 days is required before the state supreme court can forward a remittur to the Lowndes county court, and at least 42 days will be required before the judge of the Lowndes county court can resentence the defendants.
“In the meantime, it is understood that an application for executive clemency will be presented to the state pardon board in the hope of having the sentences commuted to life imprisonment. It is claimed by Attorney Cooper that he has positive evidence of old man Rawlings’ insanity and that he can show that the two sons were more tools in the hands of their father.
“It is stated by Governor Terrell that he desires to issue a respite that will cover all hearings of technicalities of the law, yet at the same time will not unnecessarily delay the resentence of the Rawlings men by the judge.
“Notwithstanding the fact that every effort is being made by his counsel to save his client, old man Rawlings is persistent in his plea that he be allowed to be hanged on the day of execution. Governor Terrell received a postal from the old man Monday saying that he had made previous requests that the chief executive would not issue any further respites, and he desired to again ask that the law be allowed to take its course.
“Attorney Cooper, who was in Atlanta Sunday morning, declared that at the next session of Lowndes county superior court he would produce evidence which would startle the state from border to border and ultimately save the lives of the condemned men.
“‘I am no more apprehensive,’ declared Attorney Cooper, ‘that those two boys will hang than I am for my own neck. There have been at play in this trial more forces than the public has dreamed of, unseen forces of political intrigue which for the sake of political success have sacrificed the interests of my clients.’
“On this particular the attorney would not talk specifically.
Cooper Has New Evidence.
“‘I have secured new evidence,’ continued Attorney Cooper, ‘which I am sure will warrant the granting of a new trial. This new trial once obtained, the result is not doubtful. You cannot imagine how widespread and rapid here of late has been the change in public sentiment toward my clients.
“‘Hundreds and hundreds of names are being put to petitions for the release of the Rawlings boys. People are coming to their senses again and realize that those young men were in no way implicated in the killing of the Carter children. They have been convicted upon the testimony of the negro, Alf Moore, and it is apparent to anyone that Moore has been drilled to implicate the boys in order to save himself from being lynched.’”