Atlanta Daily World

Appeals Sentence Because Negroes Could Not Get Seat

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - (ANP) - An attorney for a 19-year-old convicted murderer has asked the Arkansas Supreme Court to reverse the death sentence of his client because some Negroes were not admitted to the courtroom as spectators.

"There were no more seats on the segregated side to which Negroes had been directed, while there were seats available" reserved for white persons when the Negroes were not admitted, the petition said.

This, according to the defense lawyer, amounted to denial of a public trial for Frank Payne as guaranteed by the state and federal constitutions.

The denial of seats to Negroes outside the segregated section was one of 50 alleged errors listed in the brief filed on behalf of Payne by Wiley Branton, Pine Bluff attorney.

Payne was convicted of the fatal beating of his white employer, J. N. Robinson, last Oct. 4 at the office of a Pine Bluff lumber yard operated by Robinson.

Payne admitted at the trial that he struck Robinson, but contended that the death was not murder as charged. He said he struck his employer "in a sudden heat of passion" only after he had been struck first by the lumber company executive.

Another alleged error cited was the refusal by Circuit Judge Henry W. Smith to quash the jury panel on Branton's motion.

It was contended that no Negro had been selected on the Jefferson County Jury Commission in more than 50 years, though some Negroes had been summoned for jury duty since 1947 members of their race "have been discriminated against by an arbitrary and inappropriate limiting of their number..."

"Although Negroes comprise 50 per cent of the total population of Jefferson County and 30 per cent of the qualified electors, Negroes have represented only 4.3 per cent of the persons called for jury service for the past 17 consecutive terms of the Jefferson Circuit Court," the brief said.