The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-02-14
Death Asked
for3Negroes
In I'm. Trial
Indicted, Tried and Then
Sentenced on the Same
Day in Mississippi

FERNANDO, Miss, Feb. 13.-
Speedily indicted by a grand Jury
rushed to trial on the very same day
and sentenced inside Of seven min
uteS to hang-Such was the swift
lynch justice meted out under capt.
talist claw and order" to three Negro
youths. framed-up on the usual lying
rape" charges with which the South
ern slave drivers justify their muir
derous crimes against the oppressed
Negro masses. Even announcement
Of sentence, usually delayed for sew
eral days after the return of the YER
dict, was made on the same day,
Judge John M. Kuykendall Of Char
lesion Immediately sentencing the
three youths to die on March 10.
The hideous legal lynch verdict
was returned while armed troops
guarded the court house, ostensibly
to protect the constitutional rights of
the defendants to a fair trial, but
in reality to convince, with force If
necessary, a gathering lynch crowd
that q legal mass lynching, carried
through by the state itself under the
cloak Of legality, would be preferable
to mob lynching. Moreover, a bill
recently introduced in the Senate Of
Mississippi would give the unofficial
lynchers the right to witness all legal
lynchings, by making every hanging
Of q Negro public and holiday
event.
Boys Denied Defense Attorneys
In its hurry to rush the three
youths to the gallows, the lynch court
dispensed with such forrnalities as
respect for the constitutional rights
Of the defendants to adequate legal
defense. Not one Of the youths,
Ernest McGhee, %; Johnny Jones, %,
and r"aec Howard. Is: was permitted
d defense attorney. Arrested only
two davs ago on a charge of attack
ing 17-year-old white girl, the three
lads were held incommunicado and
tortured into third degree confess
sion. AS at the first trial of the
Scottsboro boys, the three lads were
not permitted to communicate with
their families. All three are from
Memphis, Tenn.
They are charged with boarding an
automobile on the night of Dec. 81,
in which the alleged girl victim, her
uncle and an aunt were riding. The
story is that the uncle and aunt were
robbed and the girl attacked. The
girl is a relative Of Senator Clay H.
Collins, author of the bill to make
hanging Of Negroes a public event 'in
the discretion Of the trial Judge.
The Senator in pressing for the pass
age Of his measure pledged his fam
lily 'to let the law take its course,
providing the legislature passes his
bill. He declared the bill was in
dorsed by Governor Collins of Mis-
eissippi. He EXPRESSED the fear that
the trial Of the three Youths would
cost the state $4,000 If his bill was
not passed.
Workers Should Protest This
Vicious Verdict
That the bill is directed against
NEGROES. is freely admitted BY Off
cials and by the press. Senator WILEY
Blair, for example, speakine in the
state senate, said: This bill will
make every NEGRO HANGING in Mis-
sissippi public holiday"
Yesterday during the seven min
utes the all-white boss jury was out,
a lynch mob twice tried to break
through the Gordon Of National
Guards to get the prisoners. They
we're finallv placated, however. by the
rapidly with which the lynch verdict
was returned and by an appeal by the
girls father to let Justice take its
course.
The brazen denial Of the right Of
legal defense to the defendants, the