The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1909-11-18
OF the United States Ninety
Days for Contempt Of
That Body.
FAMOUS CASE ENDS
Virtually First Time in His
tory Case of This Kind
is Recorded.

4 40 ANSSOlQSO.
WASHINGTON. D. c.. Nov. Is
Ninety days Imprisonment was i'm.
posed today upon ex-Sheriff Joseph F
lshipp. OF Chattanooga, Tenn, by the
Supreme Court of the United States
for contempt of the court in failing
ito prevent the lynching, OF Negro
Ed. johnson. convicted OF assault
Ibut whose execution had been stayed
Iby the court.
Williams and Nolan were sentenced
to ninety days, and Gibson. Padget,
and Mayors, the other defendants. tc
sixty days.
This was the second time in the
history of the Supreme Court of the
United States that that august BODY
had imposed a sentence upon citi.
zens. held-guilty of disregarding ITS
mandates. The previous occasion
was in another generation.
Heading the little group of 81,
men. found guilty of contempt, a.
they took their places before the
,black-robed justices, was Captain
Joseph H. shipp, the sheriff in Chat
Itanoogo. Tenn, when he offended
1.-THE court. His tall, straight figure
his scanned face and his gray-streak
ed beard, told of his long service in
the army of the Confederacy.
Bowed down under his 76 years
Jeremiah Gibson, the jailer. stood
with him. With bedimed eyes he
Hooked upon the long white locks oil
THE Chief Justice. himself as years
LOT age, who would soon pronounce
sentence upon him. perhaps send him
to prison. He and Captain Shipr
HAD been found guilty of failing to
,Iprotect Negro, waiting to be hang.
ed on charge of a. heinous crime
against a white woman. after the
Supreme Court of the United States
had stayed his execution.
Luther Williams. Nick Nolan, Hen.
Try Padgett and William Mayes, res.
iIidents of Chattanooga, found guilty
iof participating in the lynching OF
Ed Johnson. formed the rest OF the
group. Before them all sat the or.
ficials of the Department of Justice
Around about them in the little
court room. We're their attorneys
and other lawyers, while the three
rows of seats for spectators were
crowded.
Almost without Precedent.
The proceedings were practically
without precedent. In 1875, John
lchiles. business man OF Texas, was
brought before the court for con
tempt In connection with dealings in
Texas Indemnity bonds. contrary to
an order of the Supreme Court. He
was fined $3.50. But that instance
lacked the interest of the case to.
iday. In 1t were involved no race
question. no lynching, no interior.
ence with state jurisdiction; only
the majesty OF the law as interpreted
lby the highest court of the land.
The case today originated in the
courts decision in March. 1906, to
consider the appeal of johnson. from
a verdict of the Tennessee courts
holding him guilty and sentencing
him to be hanged on charge of as.
sault. The morning after the deter.
limitation of the Supreme Court to
review the proceedings was wired to
Chattanooga. a mob stromed the Jail,
took the prisoner out and -lynched
him.
| History of the Case.
The court was much incensed by
1.-THE lynching, and at Its instance the
attorney general Instituted proceed
1ings against Sheriff Shipp, Jailer
Gibson and twenty-five other citi-
zens supposed to have been impli.
Gated in the lynching, charging them
with contempt. Many OF the accused
were exonerated. and In the end
only six were found guilty.
. The finding of the court was an
nounced in May. Just before the
close of the last term of court, but
all the defendants entered motions
of rehearlng, which had the effect OF