Wallace v. Foster
| Decision Date | 13 February 1950 |
| Docket Number | No. 16924,16924 |
| Parties | WALLACE v. FOSTER, Sheriff. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Tom Strickland, Herring Sivell, and Henry Mobley, were jointly indicted with the defendant, and they knew, and were willing to testify, that Wilson Turner was alive, well, and uninjured in Meriwether County several hours after the State contended that he had been murdered in Coweta County. There was no evidence to the contrary, and such testimony would have entitled the defendant to an equittal. Potts and other officers wrongfully induced his codefendants to claim constitutional immunity, the inducement being that they would receive punishment less than the maximum. Within 48 hours after the defendant's conviction, his codefendants were given life sentences without trial. The suppression of testimony favorable to the defendant's defense, in the manner set forth, constituted a violation of his rights under the Federal Constitution, and particularly under the 14th Amendment thereof.
Potts, as Sheriff of Coweta County, assumed the role of prosecutor against the defendant, and thereby became disqualified to function as an officer of the court. Potts made a contribution of $500 from his personal funds as a reward for evidence against the defendant. While acting in the prosecution of the case, Potts assumed to summon grand jurors, before whom he appeared to procure an indictment, and to summon traverse jurors, before whom the defendant was brought to trial. Potts otherwise functioned as an officer of the court, being unable to act free of bias and prejudice and unable to accord the defendant fair and impartial treatment, because of personal interest in the outcome of the case.
Immediately after the homicide of Wilson Turner became known, to cosmopolitan newspapers published in Georgia's capital city, having general circulation in Coweta County, where the defendant's trial was had, began an attack on the defendant by news stories, editorials, magazine articles, and radio broadcasts. These articles went far beyond objective reporting, in that they falsely held the defendant out to be a 'wealthy farmer,' and Wilson Turner to be an innocent, unoffending 'tenant farmer.' Week after week this publicity covered the area from which prospective jurors were to be drawn, falsely parading the defendant before the people generally as arrogant, mean, and steeped in the crime of being 'wealthy;' at the same time hurrying (burying?) the public records of Wilson Turner, as a cow thief and a deserter from the United States Army in time of war, with the encomiums of innocence. These newspapers inflamed public opinion against the defendant and effectively convicted him in the great court of public opinion long before his trial, without giving him a chance to be heard in his own defense. A fair and impartial trial, such as is guaranteed by the Federal Constitution, was impossible. The withering blast of continuous publicity by the publication of 'letters from the people' has been continuous. The publicity campaign became intense, by editorials and by 'letters from the people,' when the defendant's case was presented to the State Board of Pardons and Paroles. This publicity robbed the defendant of a fair and unbiased consideration of his case by the Board of Pardons and Paroles, and the inflammatory matter robbed him of a fair trial, and was a denial of his constitutional right to a fair and impartial trial under the Federal Constitution, and particularly the 14th amendment thereof. The publication of the...
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