State v. Francis

The defendants Paul Francis, Frank Francis, Ethel Francis, and Abraham Gadsden, with two others, Sam Simmons and Robert Adams, all colored, were indicted in the Court of General Sessions for Beaufort County, charged with the murder of a white man, E.L. Langford, a rural police officer of Beaufort Court, on June 6, 1927, at a country precinct in said county.

The trial was begun on June 30th, 24 days after the alleged homicide, at Beaufort, before his Honor, Judge Johnson, and a jury, and lasted three days.

The verdict was:

Paul Francis: Guilty of murder without recommendation to mercy.

Frank…