Читать книгу WITH JUSTICE FOR SOME - Lise Pearlman - Страница 7
CONTENTS
ОглавлениеIn February 2015 FBI Chief James Comey acknowledged past discrimination and abusive treatment of minorities by both federal and state law enforcement and invited us all to reexamine our cultural inheritance with fresh eyes. Hate crimes still occur, though with less frequency and with more condemnation; progress is being made. This book illustrates what Washington super lawyer Edward Bennett Williams asserted over 50 years ago in One Man’s Freedom, that the individual civil liberties we cherish in the United States evolved in our criminal courtrooms, all too often with minority defendants on trial for their lives.
The Assassination of President McKinley
Buffalo, New York – September, 1901
Anarchist Leon Czolgosz shoots the newly reelected Republican Commander-in-Chief whom Hearst papers had vilified as the “tool of the money-hungry trusts.” As the police hold off would-be lynchers, nationally acclaimed Up From Slavery author Booker T. Washington sees this as a teaching moment and urges Americans to give Czolgosz a fair trial. Czolgosz gets at least the form of a trial; lynching elsewhere continues unabated.
A Dramatic Murder Brings the Curtain Crashing Down on the Gilded Age
New York City, New York – 1906
Drug-addicted millionaire Harry Thaw is at first lauded by defenders of traditional womanhood for the revenge killing of Gilded Age premiere architect Stanford White for having deflowered Thaw’s wife, Evelyn Nesbit, when she was a teenage Broadway chorus girl – the “It” girl of her era before that term was coined. Thaw’s lawyer uses the defense of Dementia Americana – temporary insanity compelling a man to defend the honor of his wife or daughter. Soon, revelations of Thaw’s own debauchery fuel working class anger at the extraordinary privileges and hypocrisy of the ruling elite.
Two Lethal Bombings Focus Americans on Labor Wars
Caldwell, Idaho – 1906; Los Angeles, California – 1910
A hired assassin blows up retired Democratic Governor Frank Steunenberg. Clarence Darrow gains national prominence defending militant mineworkers’ union leader Big Bill Haywood, the champion of the 8-hour day. President Roosevelt uses his bully pulpit to weigh in against “undesirable citizens” as immigrants across the country rally to Haywood’s defense. Four years later, the bombing of the Los Angeles Times building again pits owners against labor unions as Darrow returns to defend the McNamara brothers from execution, in a case that both severely damaged the labor movement and lost Darrow his California license.
4.SHOWDOWN WITH THE SUPREME COURT
The Lynching That Gave Teeth to the Fourteenth Amendment Right to a Fair Trial
Chattanooga, Tennessee – 1906–1909
A sheriff up for reelection frames African-American Ed Johnson for the brutal rape of a blonde 21-year-old. The record leads the U.S. Supreme Court to issue its first grant of review of a state criminal trial for fairness only to have its review thwarted when the sheriff allows Johnson to be lynched. The high court then oversees its one and only contempt trial. Its opinions in this case gave rise to 100 years of federalism. Today, the Supreme Court has been accused of turning back the clock to render review of the fairness of state court trials once again “toothless.”
Two Tragic Deaths in Atlanta Launch the Modern KKK and the Anti-Defamation League
Atlanta, Georgia – 1913–1915
The murder of thirteen-year-old factory worker Mary Phagan is exploited by the Hearst papers trying to gain a foothold in the Atlanta news market. Hearst belatedly tries to dampen anti-Semitic rage against the accused Jewish factory manager Leo Frank. After Governor Slaton commutes his sentence, Frank is lynched by white supremacists roused by political kingmaker Thomas Watson to avenge Phagan’s death as a symbol of the antebellum South. The Knights of Mary Phagan launch the modern KKK and Frank’s supporters create the Anti-Defamation League.
The Fall Guys for the Gamblers Who Rigged the 1919 World Series
Chicago, Illinois – 1921
The biggest sports scandal for eighty years occurred in an era of rank hypocrisy -- when society’s leaders championed lofty ideals as they ignored blatant double standards in the courts and on the playing field. In order to restore faith in the “squareness and honesty” of baseball, its first commissioner dramatically banned eight players for life for throwing the 1919 World Series, while whitewashing the role of others to avoid creating “suspicion of all things” in the hearts and minds of myriad fans.
7.A LEGAL LYNCHING OF SACCO AND VANZETTI
Biased Judicial System Gives American Justice an International Black Eye
South Braintree, Massachusetts – 1920
The death penalty trial of two radical Italian emigres for a robbery-murder in a factory payroll heist draws international criticism. During trial, the two anarchists sit caged before a biased judge instructing the jury to do their duty. Judge Webster Thayer makes it known he believes Sacco and Vanzetti deserve execution for dodging the wartime draft whether or not they were guilty of robbery. The denial of a fair trial to immigrants by the only superpower to emerge from World War I draws worldwide protests, spawns judicial reforms in the U.S. and galvanizes coalitions opposing WASP monopoly power in America.
Life or Death for Leopold and Loeb?
Chicago, Illinois – 1924
Two high IQ sons of wealthy Jewish families commit murder to prove they are Nietzschean supermen. The nation learns about Freudian psychiatry and criminal responsibility as Darrow seeks to save the privileged pair from execution -– an age-based exemption not accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court until many decades later.
9.THE DARK SIDE OF THE SCOPES TRIAL
White Supremacists on Both Sides Embrace Genocidal Acts
Dayton, Tennessee – 1925
Social Darwinists take sides against Fundamentalists and the KKK. Clarence Darrow debates perennial presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan in a test case challenging a new state law barring the teaching of evolution in a widely used textbook by a eugenicist advocating sterilization of inferior human stock.
The Sweet Murder Trials Launch the NAACP Legal Defense Fund as the KKK Collapses
Detroit, Michigan – 1925–1926
The KKK was at its peak of influence when the NAACP recruited Clarence Darrow to defend a black doctor, his friends and family from murder charges. The confrontation that resulted in a spectator being killed had started when a KKK-sponsored association stoned Dr. Sweet’s home in a mostly white, working class neighborhood. Darrow’s favorite closing argument details the history of oppression faced by blacks in America and convinces an all-white male jury to put themselves in Dr. Sweet’s shoes.
The Railroading of the Scottsboro Boys Prompts Two Landmark Supreme Court Decisions
Scottsboro, Alabama – 1931
Nine black teenagers hoboing on a freight train during the Depression barely escape lynching on false charges of rape by two white prostitutes. The Scottsboro Boys then faced death sentences from a travesty of a trial before an all-white-male jury drawn from a whites-only jury pool. The U.S. Supreme Court declares that the constitutional right to counsel in death penalty cases means competent counsel and that the right to a fair trial prohibits systematic exclusion of black citizens from the jury pool.
False Charges of Gang Rape Set the Stage for Hawaiian Statehood
Honolulu, Hawaii – 1931–1932
A gang rape trial ends in a hung jury following evidence that five Pacific islanders were framed by police for the alleged assault of Thalia Massie, wife of Navy lieutenant Tommie Massie. Massie, his mother-in-law and two friends then commit an “honor killing” of one of the defendants and themselves face murder charges. Clarence Darrow defends them in his last case. Racial polarization alarms the armed forces stationed in the territory. Congress and President Hoover become involved amid fears of civil war. When the truth of the made-up rape later emerges, political alliances among island minorities help launch Hawaii as our 50th state.
Law Enforcement Helps Cover Up Key Evidence in “The Crime of the Century”
Hunterdon County, New Jersey – 1932–1936
As kidnap for ransom became common in the Depression, the reported kidnapping of the infant son of America’s most celebrated aviator caused a national frenzy, embarrassing the New Jersey State Police for their failure to solve the headline crime. Numerous suspects were arrested and let go before Lindbergh himself helped pin the crime on illegal immigrant carpenter, Bruno Richard Hauptmann. Many experts cite the case as a prime example of a travesty of justice.
The deeply problematic handling of the Lindbergh kidnapping case from start to finish provides a classic example of the “hard truths” FBI director James Comey broadly acknowledged in his speech at Georgetown University in February 2015. The early 20th century headline trials in this book provide teaching moments for us all. Everyone willing to reexamine our cultural heritage with clear eyes is helping diverse elements of our society move toward mutual respect and to champion “justice for all.”
