The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1909-05-25
FIRST CASE OF
KIND ON RECORD
SUPREME COURT FINDS SIX MEN
GUILTY OF CONTEMPT OF
THAT TRIBUNAL.
SENTENCE NEXTTUESDAY
Sheriff and Deputy ant: Four Other,
Allowed Lynchine of NEGRO
Rapist in Tennessee
in 1906

IN 19O5.
Washington, May 24-For the first
time in so serious a case, the Su-
preme Court of the United States will
on Tuesday of next we, *, undertake
to mete out punishment for the crime
of contempt of court itself, and the
Importance of the occasion will be en-
hanced by the number Of defendants.
The proceedings will take place in
connection with the eases of Sheriff
Shipp and Deputy Sheriff Gibson of
Hamilton County, Tenn, and four
cher residents of that county,
named. respectively: Williams, No
Ian. Padgett and May These men
were today declared by the court to
be guilty of am act o. contempt in
combining in 1905 in conspiracy to
lynch a negro named Johnson, who
had been sentenced to death by the
local courts on a charge of rape. and
in whose case the supreme cour, had
iuterfered to the extent OF granting
an appeal which had the erect of
sep2rsedeas. On the night following
the announcement of the courts ac-
tion. Johnson was taken out of the
Jail in Chattanooga by a mob and
lynchedI There was no resistance
on the part of Jail authorities. and
Shipp and a number of his deputies,
as well as about twenty citizens,
were proceeded against on the charge
of contem9t of the feSeral court,
Three Found GultIess.
The case has been vending ever
since. and the number OF defendants
was from rfme 10 time rpduccd tol
nine OF these nine three were toda
found gultess while the other six
were ordered to be brought into court
Tuesday a week for sentence They
will be taken into custody immediate |
ly and will appear in court in charge |
of Marshal Wright Tile sentence
may be either fine or imprisonment. |
or both
OF Excentional Interest.
The case is regarded as of eXcep /,
tional interest because 1t is practic- |
ally the first time the highest court |
In the United States has ever under |
taken to assert its dignity or TO re-
sent the acts or words rejecting upon |
it In one previous case some years |
ago, defendant was fined for some |
expression of contempt, but the case |
was so comparatively insignificant as |
practically leave the present proceed |
ing standing alone
In the cases of Sheriff SnIpp and |
Deputv Gibson. the court in effect |
declares that there may De contempte /
in a failure OF officers of the law 10 |
prevent crime in contempt OF the |
court and in taking c0gniZance of the |
Offense at so great a distance, the |
court for the first time asserts by |
this action its right to compel the
proper respect for, and treatement of |
It's yerdicts in all mrs OF the u2ion
Was Not Exoec.ec.
In the case under consideration the |
defendants explanations of absence |
of sufficient projection at the Jail |
was that mob violence was not ex,
pected that day. The court meets |
this assertion by quoting from the
statements of Sheriff Shipp to the |
effect that he expected a mob the |
next day-the day following that |
upon which the lynchng actually oc-
Cured The court insists that the |
sheriff should have been prepared all |
the time to defend the prisoner and If |
he had had any ntimaton that mob |
might be on hand on the Goth of the |
month he should have oeen prepared |
even before the 18th, the day the |
lynching took place.
Never Hunted lyncners.
The court also saws that after the |
lynching Shipp made no effort to ap-
prchenl the lyncher>, ana quotes |
from alleged statements of the |
sheriff crticising the supreme court |
for interfering in re case and that
that interference was responsible for
the lynching. In the dissenting opin-
ion of Justice .aecK1am. which was |
acquiesced in by JUS ices White amt |
McKenna. the conclusion arrived at |
was quite contrary to that Or the ma !
iority of the court. IL was held by |
the dissenters that there was no evi- |
dence whatever connecting Sheriff |
shipp of his deputy with any part in
the lynchilg conspiracy.
Dissenting op:n;on.
After detailing all the circum- I!
stances leading up to the Iynching
AMI telling of Ships going to the /,
Jail. Justice Peekham said that he |
sheriff was G3 years Of age at this
time and on account of his physical |
conlition. unable in any event TO |
have offered any great resistance. |
There were at least ten or fifteen of
the men around him who were armed
an1 tha sanuaI nrnrn1 That nanV