Special message of the Governor [William Y. Atkinson] of Georgia on enforcement of law, Dec. 4, 1895

SPECIAL MESSAGE
OF THE
GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA
ON
ENFORCEMENT OF LAW,
ATLANTA, GEORGIA: GEO. W. HARRISON, STATE PRINTER, The Franklin Printing and Publishing Company.
18U5.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.
ExECeTIYE OFFICE.
A'rI,ANTA, GA., December 4, 1895.
Membe1'8 of the Gcnernl Assembly: Since my message to you at the opening of the present
session of yonr body there have transpired occurrences of so grave a character as to impose upon me the duty of again sending to you a communication.
Information reached me that there were in Screven county two parties charged with murder who had not been arrested, although the sheriff had in his hands a warrant charging them with the aforesaid offense. Thc men were reported to be armed and ready to resist any effort that might be made to bring them to trial for the offense charged. I offered a reward of $500 for their arrest, and wrote the sheriff of the county, calling his attention to the fact that it was his duty to arrest them, and requested that he summons a posse comitatu.s anrl execute the warrant in his hands. On Kovember the 14th the sheriff wrote me: "I summoned a posse of thirty-eight men to meet me this morning. Out of thirty-eight three responded to the summonr,,. I went with the three men and searched the premises, but they could not be found. "There they are I am not able to say, as I could learn riothinq fl'orn the family.
I am informed that on this day the defendants were seen bird hunting in the county of Screven.
There is no penalty attached for failure to respond to the summons of a sheriff to act as a posse comitalu.s.
This statement of facts, without argument, justifier,, me in recommending :
1st. That a law be enacted that will provide a penalty

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for the failure to obey the summons of a sheriff to act as a po8se cornitcdu8,
2d. That it be made the duty of the solicitor-general, in every case where he has reason to believe that an arresting officer has failed to make an arrest when it was in his power to do so, to draw a rnlc ni8i against him, so that if the facts on trial warrant it, he may be punished as prescribed in section 39u 7, to wit: "Fined, imprisoned, or removed from office in the manner prescribed by the constitution and laws."
It is folly to expect the military to turn out and roam through the forest in search of every criminal who evades arrest. It is the duty of the arresting officers to execute warrants for criminals, and the lawmaking power should give to therillt ample power to perform their duty. When this has been done, if any one of them fail, when in his power to arrest, he should be punished and promptly discharged.
Government owes to the people no higher duty than the impartial and speedy enforcement of law. The standard of the civilization of a people, the efficiency and character of a government, are determined not by the laws which it enacts, hut by those which it enforces.
RECENT LYNCHI!S"GS.
During the present session of the General Assembly there have been reported three lynchings-one in Clinch county, one in :Montgomery, and one in Dooly. These savage acts are in violation of the rights of the citizen and of the express declaration of the Constitution of the State. I invite your attention to the following, which I take from the Bill of Rights, which is a part of our Constitution:
Article 1, sedion 1, paragraph 2, Code, section 4994: Protection to person and property is the paramount duty of government, and shall be impartial and complete.

.Article 1, section 1, paragraph 3, Code, section --1H95 : No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property except by due process of law.
Article I, section 1, paragraph 5, Code, section 4997: Every person charged with an offense against the laws of this State shall have the privilege and benefit of counsel ; shall be furnished on drmand with a copy of the accu;;ation and a list of the witnesses on whose testimony the charge against him is founded; shall have compulsory process to obtain the testimony of his own witnesses; shall be confronted with the witnesses testifying agaim,t him, and shall have a public and speedy trial by an impartial jury.
Article 1, section 1, paragraph H, Code, section 5001: Excessive bail shall not be req nired, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted; nor shall any person be abused in being arrested, while under arrest, or in prison.
In spite of these rights guaranteed to every citizen three men have been taken during your present sitting and deprived of life without trial, without an opportunity to be heard in their own defense-in the language of the Constitution, ",vithout due process of law." ,vhile the Constitution of our State says,'' _:\'or ;.,hall any person be abused in being arrested, while under arrest, or in prison," it is true that in each of the cases above referred to, the party murdered by lyncher:5 was actually taken from the custody of the officer of the law, who held him to answer the charge in a court authorized to try and if guilty punish him. The lynchers used the offi-Jcr:5 of the law to arrest and disarm their victims, and t:ien took them from the custody of the law and killed them. This is not only true in these cases, but is, I think, also true of every case of lynching during my term as Governor. In each case the officers had the defendant in charge and the judges of the courts were ready to do their full duty, grant a speedy trial, and inflict

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punishment if guilty. There had been no failure on the part of the officers of the law to do their fu 11 duty. In one instance the Governor had offered a reward for the arrest of the defendant, he had been arrested, the reward paid, a special term of the court called, the defendant convicted and sentenced to be hung in the shortest time allowed by law, and yet he was taken from the sheriff in the court room, in the presence of the court and jnry, and lynched.
That you may fully appreciate the enormity of the wrong done by so-called lynch law to the reputation of the State, to civilization, and to the rights of man, I invite you to inquire into each of the recent cases which have moYed me to pen this communication. The conduct of the mob in each ca;;e is unjustifiable, disgraceful, and shocking, but in one of them the wrong done was especially horrifying. While engaged in writing this me:,;sage, there came into my office, asking that he be accorded a trial in our courts, a man who hacl fled from an angry mob which endeavored to capture and lynch him.
Mob violence doe;.: not aid in suppressing lawles,-,ness, but increm,es it. One mob begets another mob. If you will note the reported sequence of the lynching in Montgomery county, where it is said murder has been added to murder by the killing of the father of the girl alleged to have been astiaulted by the man who was lynched, you will see to what mob violence will assuredly lead.
\Ve all know of many wrongs it has clone and of mistakes it has made in selecting its victims. How many innocent men have been sacrificed by this lawless court can never bo known, for it dcnieR its victims the right to be heard in their own dcfonse, and then closes their mouths forever.
The people can safely entrust the punishment of crime to our courts. If the men charged with crimes are guilty, they should be punished as provided by law, and the courts should and will inflict this penalty.

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Men seem to forget that each man who engages 111 a lynching violates the law against murder, and that the penalty is death upon the gallows.
The arresting officer is now clothed with power to take the life of his as,,;ailants when resisting their efforts to take a prisoner from him, and it is his duty to take the life of the assailants if necessary to protect bis prisoner and retain him in custody.
That it may be ascertained whether or not he does bis full duty in thi,, respect in c,ery instance, I recommend the passage of a law requiring a thorough investigation in every case, and providing adequate punishment when he falls short of the full measure of his duty. Existing laws are inadequate to meet the emergency. Other laws should therefore be enacted to enforce the Constitution, and to secure to the citizen rights guaranteed in our fundamental law.
If the measures herein and heretofore suggested by me do not meet with your approval, I most earnestly ask that you devise others, and enact them into law. In every effort yon may make to stamp out lynching, you shall have my hearty co-operation, and every law which you may enact shall be enforced if I am given the power to do so.
The responsibility for the needed legislation is upon you, and I shall confidently rely upon your doing your full d11ty. I cannot believe that I ask in vain when I present these things to the representatives of the people of Georgia, and seek such legislation as will save our State from further humiliation and disgrace, and secure to every citizen rights guaranteed in express terms in our State Constitution, and which arc the birthrights of every citizen of an English-speaking country.
W. Y. ATKINSON, Governor.