Chapter 19As soon as I entered the Wythe County Circuit Court building, I was met by a recently installed plaque honoring the victims of the Carroll County courthouse tragedy who had been ‘assassinated’. It was obvious where the sentiments of Wythe County laid.
I began reviewing the transcripts for Claude’s trial. They seemed to mirror the ones I had previously reviewed for Floyd. I got the books for both trials and compared them . At first appearance, it was as if the transcript for both men’s trials had been copied, nearly word for word, with the exception of the jurists chosen. Both carried the motion the defense counsel had made to dismiss charges due to the clerk’s office losing the judge’s original list of potential jurors, but in each case, Judge Staples overruled.
Nearly the
