Tillman Branch's Murder - Mississippi Supreme Court Affirms Matthew Winter's Sentence

This is a follow-up post to an earlier brief account of the murder of Tillman Branch, the subject of a book I am currently writing. The book, tentatively entitled "Tillman Branch, King of the Mississippi Bootleggers," is scheduled for publication by The History Press in April 2014. 

The earlier posting included a decision by the U.S. District Court, Northern Division, Greenville, Mississippi, regarding the legality of Matthew Winter's guilty plea, entered in Circuit Court of Holmes County in 1963. That decision was subsequently appealed to the Supreme Court of Mississippi, asking for Winter's guilty plea to be voided and his sentence vacated based on the contention that Negroes had been systematically excluded from a Grand Jury that indicted him and that Winter's attorney, David Crawley, Jr., had not advised the accused of his right to challenge the jury panel. The decision of the Supreme Court of Mississippi, rendered by Memorandum dated February 8, 1971, can be read below. 

Interestingly, the case would be appealed later to the U. S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, a matter that will be discussed further in the upcoming book.

Matthew WINTERS

v.

STATE of Mississippi.

No. 46191.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

February 8, 1971.

Constance Iona Slaughter, Jackson, for appellant.

A.F. Summer, Atty. Gen., by Guy N. Rogers, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.

INZER, Justice:

This is an appeal by Matthew Winters from a judgment of the Circuit Court of Holmes County overruling appellant's motion to vacate his previous conviction by a plea of guilty to a charge of murder, and the life sentence imposed as a result of his plea. We affirm.

Appellant, a Negro, was indicted at the April 1963 term of the Circuit Court of Holmes County for the murder of E.T. Branch, a Caucasian. He was at the time seventeen years of age and his family employed David E. Crawley, Jr. of Kosciusko, Mississippi, to defend him on this charge. Upon arraignment appellant pled not guilty. His counsel, after an investigation, was convinced from what appellant and members of his family had told him relative to the facts in the case that appellant had no real defense to the charge unless a mental examination would reveal that appellant was insane. Counsel then filed a petition asking that appellant be committed to the state hospital for a mental examination, and the court entered an order so committing him. He was found to be without psychosis and was returned to the Holmes County Jail. At the October 1963 term appellant entered a plea of guilty to the charge of murder and was sentenced to serve a life term in the State Penitentiary.

On October 6, 1969, appellant filed a motion in the Circuit Court of Holmes County seeking to have his sentence vacated. The motion alleged that at the time of his indictment, and for a long time prior thereto, Negroes had been deliberately excluded from service on the grand and petit juries in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. It was also alleged that appellant was denied his right of effective assistance of counsel because his counsel failed to advise him of his right to challenge the indictment on the systematic exclusion of Negroes from the grand jury and his right to stand trial by a jury from which Negroes had not been systematically excluded. It was further alleged that because he was a Negro layman and uneducated in law, he did not recognize or become aware of his constitutional right until shortly before filing his petition to vacate.

The trial court conducted a full evidentiary hearing on the motion, and the evidence supports the following finding by the court:

The court finds from the testimony presented at the hearing that David Crawley, Jr., is and has been a member of the Mississippi State Bar in good standing since 1942, that as a part of his practice prior to 1963, he had handled a number of criminal cases, including murder cases. The court further finds that the petitioner's attorney, Mr. Crawley, investigated the charges against his client thoroughly, that his investigation showed no substantial conflicts as to the occurrence of the crime, that Mr. Crawley believed based upon his investigation that to go to trial would put his client in imminent danger of receiving the death penalty, that Mr. Crawley considered raising every possible issue and defense, including the systematic exclusion of Negroes from jury service in Holmes County and would have done so had the case been tried, that although the intention to raise the defense of systematic exclusion of Negroes from jury service was not communicated to the petitioner, it was communicated to the District Attorney during the plea bargaining. The court therefore concludes that the petitioner was advised of and knew the elements of the charge against him, was advised of his rights, and was aware of the sentences which could be imposed, including the death penalty. The petitioner knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily entered his plea of guilty upon the advice of competent counsel. The petitioner's voluntary guilty plea waived all non-jurisdictional defects. Lantz v. United States, 417 F.2d 329 (5th Cir. Oct. 6, 1969); Picard v. Allgood, 400 F.2d 887 (5th Cir., 1968); Askew v. Alabama, 398 F.2d 825 (5th Cir., 1968); Henderson v. United States, 395 F.2d 209 (5th Cir., 1968); Busby v. Holman, 356 F.2d 75 (5th Cir., 1966); and Clark v. Cook, Civ. No. 3702 (C.C.S.D.Miss., June 10, 1969).

The decision of the trial court is in keeping with our holding in Ellzey v. State, 196 So.2d 889 (Miss. 1967), where we held an eighteen year old defendant who had voluntarily pleaded guilty to murder could not thereafter urge that plea was void on the theory that Negroes had been systematically excluded from jury service in that county and that he had not been advised of his right to challenge the panel. We adhere to this decision for the same reasons stated in the opinion. We are aware that there are decisions of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Federal District Courts holding contra. However, such decisions are not binding on us, absent a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States holding to the contrary, we choose to follow the well-established precedent in this state.

For the reasons stated, this case must be and is affirmed.

Affirmed.

GILLESPIE, P.J., and RODGERS, JONES and SMITH, JJ., concur.

William Porter, Sr. and Gracy Lawson Porter of Hinds County, Mississippi

In recent weeks, I have written posts about descendants of John W. Ragland and Elizabeth Smith Ragland who lived in Hinds County, Mississippi during the mid 1800s.  Included among those posts were several about the family of Robert W. Ragland, one of the couple's sons, who married Sarah Jane Porter.  A review of the U. S. Census of 1850 recorded in Hinds County, Mississippi, showed that Sarah Jane (Porter) "Raglin" was the 21 year old wife of "R.W. Raglin," an "overseer," and the mother of a one year old daughter named "Laura." 


But just who were Sarah Jane Porter's parents?  Various bits of information available indicated that William Porter, Sr., a large landowner in Hinds County, and Louisa Anastacia Porter were her parents, but it was not until I reviewed a copy of William Porter's will and the will of his wife, Gracy Porter, that I could validate this relationship as fact. 


Gracy's will, probated in Hinds County court in November 1855, indicates that Gracy and William had at least two children together, Edward Turner Porter, and Sarah Jane (Porter) Ragland.  Also, both wills provided evidence that Gracy had been married before her marriage to William Porter.  Probated during the October 1834 term of Hinds County Court, William Porter's will includes bequests to his step-sons, William H. Lawson, Isaac Lawson, and John S. Lawson, and to a step-daughter, Mary Ann D. Lawson.  Since William's son, William Porter, Jr., was named administrator of his father's estate, and a daughter, Julia Ann Chrisler, received a bequest in his will but not in that of his wife, it seems likely the two were children from a previous marriage. Although Sarah Ann Porter, about four years old at the time of her father's death, was not identified by name in her father's will, William's reference to his "minor children," must have included Sarah and her brother, Edward Turner Porter.


Witnessed by Richard C. Drone, C. H. Gibbs, and George W. Gibbs, Gracy's will was probated during the November 1855 term of Hinds County Court. In her will, Gracy provided for a son, Edward Turner Porter and a daughter, Sarah Jane Ragland.  The fact that Sarah Jane Ragland is named in her mother's will, probated in 1855, indicates that Sarah's own death must have occurred between that year and 1860, when Robert W. Ragland was shown as a widower on the U. S. Census recorded that same year.  Gracy's will also included a provision for ".....children by (her) first husband," identified in the document as John Smith Lawson, William H. Lawson, Isaac Lawson, and Marian D. Stovall.  


An examination of the Mississippi State and Territorial Census Collection, 1792-1866, reveals that Gracy Porter, a 56 year old female born in Virginia, was living in Hinds County, Mississippi in 1850.  The head of the household was Gracy's son, E. (Edward) Turner Porter, a twenty-two year old farmer, and his 18-year old wife, Ann. 

According to notes included on a listing of those buried in the Fortner/Porter Cemetery on the Hinds County MSGenWeb site, William Porter, the son of Landlot Porter and Winnie Porter, was born in 1779 and died on September 9, 1834. He and Gracy were married on January 29, 1826 in Franklin County, Mississippi. Also included in the notes is information that Gracy Porter, whose death occurred on September 30, 1855, was born about 1792/94 in Virginia and was first married to James L. Lawson.  


Next:  Porter Family's Beginnings in Mississippi


Sources:
MSGenWeb Site (Hinds County, MS), Wills, Estates, and Probate, and Cemeteries, accessed online on November 23, 2010
Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.  Accessed online on November 23, 2010.
Ancestry.com.  Mississippi State and Territorial Census Collection, 1792-1866 [database on-line].  Provo, UT, USA; Ancestry.com Operations Inc. 2007.  Original data:  Mississippi State and Territorial Censuses, 1792-1866.  Microfilm V229. 3 rolls.  Heritage Quest. Accessed online on November 23, 2010.

The Story of Adam Ragland

Finding Adam was simple.  He appeared first on the U. S. Census of 1870, living in the household with Robert W. Ragland, and five other children, Bettie, Turner, Sarah, Louvega, and Lucy. Earlier posts have discussed Robert's children born during his marriage to Sarah Jane Porter, who apparently died prior to 1860.  In 1870, however, three additional children, Louvega (9), Adam (6), and Lucy, four years old, resided in Robert's household.  All three of the younger children have been identified as "mulatto." Since relationships were not shown on the 1870 census, it is impossible to determine the true relationship of any of the five children to the head of the household, but the name "Raglin" is written only once for all who resided in the household.  To the researcher, this observation appears to indicate that everyone enumerated in the household shared a common surname.  It is important to add here, that no wife was recorded in Robert's household in either 1860 or in 1870.


But who are the parents of Louvega, Adam, and Lucy? Was Robert their father??


A review of the U. S. Census of 1880 found R. W. Ragland, then 53 years old, enumerated as the head of a household in Beat 3 of Holmes County, Mississippi.  His household included a wife, P. A. Ragland, age 33, a 7-year old child named Julia Miles, Adam, 14, shown as Robert's son, and Lucy, 13, identified as his daughter. The race of Ragland and his wife, along with Julia Miles, most likely his step-daughter, was shown as "W," while Adam and Lucy were identified with the code "Mu" for mulatto. The fact that Lucy and Adam continued to live in Robert Ragland's household, even after he remarried and moved to another county, coupled with the fact that they are identified as his children on the census, confirms what the census a decade earlier could not.  No further information is available about the full name of Robert's wife, nor details that would shed light on the relationship of Julia Miles to either Robert or his wife. I suspect, but cannot prove, that Julia's was P.A.'s daughter and that Robert's wife's name before their marriage may have been P. A. Miles.


A search of the U. S. Federal Census Mortality Schedules Index on Ancestry.com provided information about P. A. Ragland's death.  According to that source, P.A. Ragland, a 33-year old Holmes County housewife, died in April of 1880.  The cause of her death was "consumption."  Seventeen years later, Robert W. Ragland died on October 13, 1897.  Buried in Harland's Creek Cemetery near Coxburg, a Holmes County community, the inscription on Robert Ragland's grave stone simply states "age 74 years." 


The next source of information about Adam Ragland is the U. S. Census of 1900 recorded for Holmes County, Mississippi, where Adam Ragland is enumerated as a resident of Beat 4.  Adam, by then 34 years old, resided in a household headed by March Travis, a 61 year old black male. Adam Ragland's relationship to Travis is shown as "son-in-law."  Also residing in the household with March Travis is his North Carolina-born wife, Sophia, age 54, two adult children, Walker, 30, Mandy, age 18, and Adam's 17 year old son, who is also named Adam. The census record shows the younger Adam Ragland's relationship to March Travis to be that of "grandson." Interestingly, the racial designation of Adam Ragland and his son, Adam, like the other individuals residing in the Travis household, was shown as "B" for Black. 


Twenty years earlier, the elder Adam Ragland, evidently the son of Robert W. Ragland, a white man, had been identified on the U. S. Census as "Mulatto."  


A review of the U. S. Census of 1910 found Adam Ragland, Sr., living with his wife of twelve years, Mandy, age 37, near Eden, in Yazoo County, Mississippi.  The census shows that Adam and Mandy were the parents of two daughters, Lucy, 10 years old, and Elizabeth, 7, both certainly named for two of Adam's sisters.  


Next:  What Happened to Adam's Son?


Sources: 
USGenweb, (MS), List of Burials in Harland's Creek Cemetery, compiled by Dudley Rinicker; accessed online November 16, 2010.
Jackson, Ron V., Accelerated Indexing Systems, comp.. U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedules Index [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999.
Ancestry.com. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry Operations Inc., 2006; Year: 1880; Census Place: Beat 3, Holmes, Mississippi; Roll: 649; Family History Film: 1254649; Page: 149D; Enumeration District: 6; Image: 0720.ear 
Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Year: 1910; Census Place: Eden, Yazoo, Mississippi; Roll: T624_764; Page: 11B; Enumeration District: 91; Image: 1010.

Ragland - Porter Marriage

In an earlier post, I wrote about Robert W. Ragland, one of Winiford Ragland Branch's brothers, who was married to Sarah Jane Porter on March 24, 1848.  As I mentioned in the post, some Ragland family research has shown that Sarah Jane Porter was the daughter of William Porter, Sr. and Louisa Anastacia Porter, William's second wife whom he married on January 29, 1826. My own research, at least so far, has not validated this information.  In fact, my review of the transcription of the will of William Porter, Sr. found no provision for a daughter named Sarah Jane. More about this relationship later.....

Ragland Family Book

Thanks to a little internet research, I have discovered Charles Ragland's book, entitled "The Raglands:  The History of a British American Family," that traces that family's origins back to England.  Actually the book is two volumes and can be found in most genealogy libraries.  According to what I have read so far, the book traces the lineage of the Ragland family in America through Evan Ragland, the emigrant.  Now I need to locate a copy to read more about the "Mississippi Raglands, " William Ragland, Jr., Joseph Ragland, and John Ragland (Winiford Ragland's father, and my ancestor.)  More later......

Ragland Ancestors

Thanks to research today on Ancestry.com, I found the name of my great-great-great-great-grandfather Ragland.  I have long known that Winiford (Winney) Ragland, married to Edward Tilman Branch (born 1798 in Virginia) was my paternal great-great-great-grandmother.  But I had not been able to determine the names of her parents.  Today, I found those names - John W. Ragland and Elizabeth Smith.  John, born in 1788 in Newberry, South Carolina, married Elizabeth, born 1790, about 1810 in Newberry, South Carolina.  Their marriage produced nine children, including my great-great-great-grandmother, Winiford, born in 1814.  Winiford's siblings were John W. Jr. (1808), Arthur S. (1811), Sara (1814), William A. (1825), Robert W. (1826), Eliza (1832), Mary V. (1835), and Julia V. (1840).

Dicy Netherland and John Saul, Jr. - "Gone to Texas"

The term, "Gone to Texas", or "G.T.T.", was quite common during the early to mid-1800s, when so many settlers moved further west to claim unsettled land.  Much has been written about Texas migration, including my own post on this blog over a year ago, in which I mentioned another blogger, Vickie Everhart. The author of BeNotForgot, Vickie is the administrator of a website for those who are researching ancestors who allegedly migrated to Texas from Mississippi and other states.

Recently, when I began researching the Fenner, Neatherlin/Netherland, and Pettus families, I discovered that they, too, were among the families who were said to have "Gone to Texas."  I can't imagine what these families experienced when they left their homes in wagons for an unknown area and an often unsafe frontier known as The Republic of Texas.  Among these families was one headed by John Saul, Jr., whose wife, Dicy Ann Netherland, was a daughter of my third great-grandparents, Rachel Fenner and William Neatherlin, Sr.

Yesterday, I wrote a post on Cemeteries of Dancing Rabbit Creek about the Saul family.  Around 1824, John Saul, Jr. left the Mississippi Territory with his wife, children, and his parents, John Saul, Sr. and Rachel Saul, settling in the Nacogdoches District of Texas around 1826.  Most researchers agree that John Saul, Jr. was born in Georgia before his parents moved into the Mississippi Territory and that he married Dicy Netherland in Mississippi around 1817. Interestingly, Neatherlin child, Dicy's brother, William Neatherlin, Jr., married the sister of John Saul, Jr., Easter Saul. Eventually, John Saul, Jr. moved his family to Williamson County, Texas, where he and Dicy later died and are buried. Yesterday's post includes photos of the grave stones of Dicy and John Saul, Jr., in Bagdad Cemetery, near the town of Leander, Texas.  According to a profile included in "Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Volume I, Patriot Ancestor Album," Dicy and John Saul, Jr. are memorialized as early pioneers and patriots of The Republic of Texas.

My research is only beginning, and it certainly looks as if I have much more to do.  But I have already found one thing for sure - the trail for many of the Fenner, Neatherlin/Netherland, Pettus, and Saul families seems to end in Texas.

Stay tuned for more......

Resources:  
1.  Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Volume I, Patriot Ancestor Album; Turner Publishing Company, Paducah, Kentucky, 1995. GoogleBooks, accessed on August 28, 2010.
2.  Find-A-Grave, Bagdad Cemetery, Leander, Williamson County, Texas, website accessed online August 27, 2010

Uriah Conner and His Descendants

Remember how I wrote in a post published earlier this week about how wonderful my readers are? You may recall that I also mentioned in that post about how a descendant of Colonel James Drane contacted me and provided detailed family information and photos that enabled me to write a post about the Drane family.

Well, today, I have a similar story to tell.

Several weeks ago, a reader of my blog who lives in Houston, Texas, discovered a post I had written months ago about the Conner Cemetery in Attala County, Mississippi. This particular cemetery is now marked by a Mississippi historical marker. The reader is a descendant of the Conner Family, and she sent photos and some amazing family information about her ancestors who lived in the Attala County area. One of the photos attached to her email was that of Uriah Conner, Jr. and his son, John Lewis Conner.

John Lewis Conner (left in photo), b. Dec. 28, 1825

Uriah Conner, Jr. (right in photo), b. March 2, 1783

(Photo courtesy of Jane Swanson)

According to the readers' facts obtained from Conner family documents, Uriah Conner, Jr. and his family settled in Mississippi in the early 1800s. Uriah Conner, Jr. was born on March 2, 1783 in North Carolina, the son of Uriah Conner and Margaret Johnston Conner. John Lewis Conner, who appears with his father in the photo shown here, was the son of Uriah Conner, Jr. and his wife, Rebecca Chappalear Conner. John was born on December 28, 1825 in Pickens County, Alabama.

Watch for additional posts with more details about the Conner family in Mississippi, a family that like so many others, migrated westward to occupy lands in newly formed counties that had once been part of the Choctaw Nation. I hope you will join me to read more about these early Mississippi settlers.