Greenville Sabbath Trial Ends in Acquittal

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 19, 1909

Greenville Sabbath Trial Ends in Acquittal

As stated last week, the trial of our brethren at Greenville, S. C., for picking strawberries on Sunday, was held August 3. Elder K. C. Russell, secretary of the Religious Liberty Bureau, and Elder T. H. Jeys, president of the North Carolina Conference, were present, and addressed the court. They were warned by the judge at the outset that no one would be allowed to discuss any religious question in order to prove which day was the Sabbath, as the law of the land had decided that Sunday was the day to be observed. In speaking, our brethren called attention to the fact that the court had before it a religious question, inasmuch as the warrant of arrest charged the crime of Sabbath-breaking. It was argued that the court could deal rightfully only with civil matters, and that therefore the question of dealing with Sabbath-breaking was outside of its jurisdiction; that the picking of strawberries was a civil act, permissible, so far as court interference was concerned, on Sunday as on every other day. Attention was also called to the fact that in requiring the defendants to rest on Sunday after they had observed their own rest day, was in violation of the principle of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, as well as to Section 9 of the Bill of Rights of South Carolina. A jury of six business men, together with about two hundred interested spectators, listened to the arguments. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty, which appeared to meet the hearty approval of the general community.