Other days

100 YEARS AGO May 21, 1918

HOT SPRINGS — The sixty-third session of the Southern Baptist convention came to an unexpectedly early close today, leaving considerable unfinished business. Among it was the action condemning “some Baptist and secular universities,” as “reeking with German kultur.” Debate on the resolution, which passed late in the morning session, was cut off by a cloture rule. Dr. D. B. Gray, corresponding secretary of the Home Missions Board, Dr. J. J. Hurt of Wilmington, N.C., and others protested that this prevented the delegates from realizing that the phraseology of the resolution was such as to stigmatize practically every Baptist educational institution in the nation.

50 YEARS AGO May 21, 1968

Elijah Watson, 23, of McAlmont, decided to plead guilty to a robbery charge Monday in Circuit Court after a jury panel had been selected and empaneled to try him. His attorney, W. M. Herndon, asked Judge William J. Kirby to let the jury fix Watson’s punishment. The judge did, and the jury gave Watson 15 years with five to be served. The unusual proceeding was the kind used when a defendant pleads guilty to a capital offense, because the law requires that a jury — not a judge — fix the punishment in this situation.

25 YEARS AGO May 21, 1993

CAMDEN — Marcia Coburn, 33, of Harmony Grove will be charged today with shooting her infant son to death Saturday night, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Hamilton Singleton of Camden said Thursday. The charge against Coburn will be capital murder, Singleton said. Singleton said in a telephone interview that Coburn would be charged this morning with capital murder. She will be discharged from Baptist Medical Center when her medical condition allows it, Singleton said. He said he hadn’t been told when that would be, but added that she might make her first court appearance “sometime today.”

10 YEARS AGO May 21, 2008

Leaders for the state’s Democrats and Republicans say it’s too early to tell if holding the presidential primary in February dampened voter turnout for Tuesday’s elections. Natasha Naragon, a spokesman for Secretary of State Charlie Daniels, said Daniels initially projected overall voter turnout to be about 20 percent. “Secretary Daniels said he thinks there will very likely be 15 [percent] to 16 percent turnout,” she said, “but definitely less than 20 percent.” Naragon said the projection includes early and absentee votes cast.