The monitor., 1928-03-16
ExTRADITI0N TO
MISSOURI STATE
DENIED BY COURT
Ohio Governor Refuses to Return
Man Charged with Committing
Murder ID Years Ago in
Sister State
IDENTIFICATION INCOMPLETE
National Advancement Association
Attorneys Active in Thwarting
Attempt to Imprison Ma
tive of Ohio

New York, March 9-Extradition
of Negro, Will Brown, known as
"Cornbread," from Columbus, Ohio,
to Missouri where it was feared he
would be lynched on charge of muir
der committed Ia years ago, has been
defeated by Attorney w. S. Lyman,
with the cooperation of the legal aid
committee of the Columbus branch
of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People. The
committee, composed of Attorneys B.
F. Hughes, A. j. Worsham, L. A. Ran
som and /. d. Ross, began an inves-
tigation as soon as the arrest of Will
Brown was reported.
Immediately after his arrest there
were numerous reports in circulation
in the city of Columbus to the effect
that citizens in New Madrid, Missouri,
would lynch Brown as soon as he was
returned to Missouri" says a report
from Columbus to the National AS
sociation for the Advancement of
Colored People national office. 'It
the Ku Klux Klan of New Madrid had
raised a sum of money estimated at
$1,000 to bring Brown back to Mis-
souri,.
"The attitude and conversation of
Lewis Hackett, deputy sheriff of New
Madrid county, sent here to receive
the custody of Brown, did much to
enhance this apprehension. Through
out the hearing on a writ of habeas
corpus he referred to Brown as this
here niger and 'darky.'
"Upon investigation by the associ-
alton attorneys, in cooperation with
Mr.. Lyman, personal counsel for
Brown, it was found that the muir
derer of Henry Johnson was about
"a or 25 years of age at the time of
the killing. Therefore the murderer
would be approximately 40 years old
now.
Brown stated that he was only 26
years of age now; that he was born
in Willard, Ohio, and that he had
never been in Missouri"
The attorneys found several people
who had known Brown in his youth in
Columbus, Ohio, and the testimony
of these people at the hearing before
the Ohio governors secretary estab-
lished Browns age as he had given it.
This would have made Brown only
IL years old at the time the murder
was committed. The report to the
N. A. A. G. P. continues;
'The claim of the state of Missouri
was founded upon personal identifi-
cation by the deputy sheriff of New
Madrid county. He claimed to have
been able to remember Brown and
identify him after lapse of ID years.
This appeared doubtful in the light
of the fact that he could have seen
him only two or three times week,
over period of three months, among
two or three hundred other Negroes
at work on levee camp where the
alleged killing took place.
"He further claimed that he had
been able to pick Brown out of 40
other prisoners in the morning line
up at the city prison on the day after
his arrival. But this statement was
negatived on his cross-examination
when defense attorneys forced him
to admit that he had arrived in Col
umbus about midnight and had gone
directly to the prison, where an at
tendant had allowed him to go back
to 'Cornbread's' cell and take good
look at the defendant. Identification
the following morning was, of course,
simple matter.
"upon conclusion of the evidence,
the assistant prosecutor for Franklin
county, Ohio, refused to make any
plea for extradition. Mr.. Lyman then
spoke briefly of the evidence and call
ed attention to the failure of the de-
manding state to establish identity