The Omaha guide., 1935-04-13
u. S. Supreme Court To
Hear HOIlins Case
Grants Writ of Certiorari and Sets
April 90 As Date For Hearing
of Argument in Famous
Oklahoma Case.
BATTLE SINCE DECEMBER, 1881

"Scottsboro case Of Oklahoma, will
be heard by the United States SUI
preme court on April 20, the court
indicated here Monday
In the tremendous excitement over
the victorious Scottsboro case rever-
sal and he significant opinion on the
Texas white primary, the courts an
nouncement that it had granted a writ
Of c~ertiorari in the Jess Hollins ease
attracted no attention. But those ia
miliar with the Holl.ns case have
poined out its similarity to the
Scottsboro cases and have expressed
the belief that it is an important at
tack on the court system Of the South
as It operates against Negroes.
Convicted in 1881
Hollins was convicted December %,
1881 at a "farce trial. in the base
ment of the Jail in Sapulpa, Oklahoma.
He was charged with criminal assault
upon a white girl. At his ~"trial''
which was held at night, he had no
lawyer and no one to advise him of
his rights. Every man in the court
room was against him and he was
warned that if he did not plead guilty
he would be turned, over to a lynching
mob. He pleaded guilty, was SEN
fenced to death, and was rushed by
automobile to the state penitentiary
the same night
At first the International Labor
Defense was active in his Ease and in
Februar!-, 1882, when an appeal was
sent to the NAACP for aid, the asso-
citation declined to act, on the ground
that the LID. already had charge
Of the case. Hollins was sentenced
to be executed August 18, 1882, but
the LID. made no move to perfect an
appeal for him or to obtain a stay of
execution, or to protest the "joke
rial" by which he had been ra.lroaded
to death.
Three days before the scheduled ex-
e~cution NAACP officers in Oklahoma
~telegraphed the national office and
machinery was started in motion
which secured a stay of execution for
Hollins and quickly got a reversal of
his conviction BY the state supreme
court. The Oklahoma supreme court,
in reversing the conviction, rebuked
the lower court in scorching language
and declared that Hollins had been
denied all his constitutional rights in
a ruthless manner.
Branches of the NAACP in Okla
homa, assisted by the national Office,
raised the funds for the new trial and
the appeal to the Oklahoma supreme
court following the second conviction.
Girl Familiar With Negroes
1t was at the second trial that the
Hollins case was shown to be very
similar to the Scottsboro case. White
Oklahoma lawyers engaged by the
state NAACP brought cut in direct
testimony that the girl who claims to
have been assaulted by Hollins was
on familiar terms with Negroes, had
gone to their homes and dance halls
for amusement, had made a practice
of drinking with them, and enjoyed a
reputation as a good time girl" in
the neighborhood.
The girls testimony was that she
had been criminally attacked against
her will three times in the space of
three hours in a field alongside a pub
lie road, with the house of a white
farmer within sight and within sound
OF her screams if she had chosen to
scream.
Her testimony showed that despite
the fact that she could have gone to
the home of the white farmer as O o
as the crime was committed, instead
she walked to the road with Hollins
and ne went in one direction and she
in another. Apparently, she never
told anyone about the assault until
sic happened to meet her relatives
on the road and they questioned her
about her long absence.
One of the witnesses at the second
trial vas a colored evangelist who tes-
tined that he had to close down his
tent revival because the white girl
made 50 much trouble among the
young colored men.
Jury Issue Raised
The NAACP lawyers also chal-
lenged the method of selecting the
Juries and placed the jury commits
sioner on the stand. 1t was shown
that no Negroes had ever been select
ed for jury service, whereas in MANY
instances it was testified that the iurv
commission solicited white men stand
ing on the street corners to serve as
jurors.
The brief to be drawn for the su-
preme court by NAACP lawyers will
stress the jury question and it is
hoped that the court will reverse the
conviction of Hollins just as it has re-
versed the conviction of the Scottsboro
defendants.
A call for additional funds to finance
the expensive appeal to the supreme
oD,,-4 49, $500 800