Evening star., 1947-05-22
All 28 Men Acquitted
On Lynch Charges
In South Carolina
BY III. As.oeieisd Press

,
BY fhs Asso<ioisd Press
GREENvnLE, s. c., May 22.
Twenty-eight white men were
acquitted at their mass murder
trial last night OF charges that
they lynched a 23-year-old
Negro.
The verdicts were returned IN
Greenville County's sitting court
room after a nine-day trial unpre-
cedented in Southern history. The
State had demanded conviction
L but not death-against the alleged
murderers of Willie Earle, who was
taken from Pickens County Jail be-
t fore dawn February II and slain In
reprisal for the stabbing Of white
| taxi driver.
Agents of the Federal Bureau Of
Investigation and local and State
police moved quickly into the case
and within "a hours had incrimi-
mating statements from self-ac-
knowledged members of the mob.
Eventually, 26 defendants signed
unsworn statements, admitting to
police that they had helped take
the Negro to an old slaughter pen
where he was bludgeoned, slashed
and shot to death.
Interference" Criticized.
A county grand jury indicted 81
commit murder and of being ac-
cessories both before and after the
fact. All were brought to trial in
Greenville Criminal Court. Three
won directed verdicts of acquittal.
In closing the States case, Prose-
cutor Samuel Watt and Robert Ash
more appealed to the jury to act as
the public conscience of South
Carolina.
The jury, however, needed the
plea of Defense Counsel Thomas
Wofford, who criticized Northern
interference" and demanded ac-
quittal to "show them it's no use
meddling In Greenville County"
The defense offered no witnesses
or testimony and no defendant took
the stand. Referring to the alleged
stabbing, of which Earle was ac-
cused, Defense Attorney John B.
Culbertson had shouted:
Willie Earle is dead, and I wish
more like him were dead"
Judge Withholds Thanks.
Circuit Judge j. Robert Martin,
jr., declined comment on the ver-
dict. He withheld the customary
thanks of the court when the jury
ended the case.
Gentlemen" he said," you are
free to go. The clerk has your
checks and you may pick them up
at your pleasure.
The jury had deliberated hours
and Is minutes.
The last white man to die for
an offense against Negro in South
Carolina was a plantation owner,
sentenced in Newberry County by
Judge John Bolton O'Neal in 1848
for killing two slaves.
Defense Attorney Wofford hailed
the acquittal as what we expected"
and declared, 1--WE think 1t repre-
sents the feeling of this COM
munity."
Mr.. Watt withheld comment and
Mr.. Ashmore observed, I'm going
fishing"
The acquittals set off a wave Of
jubilation among the defendants
and their relatives, which was held
in check until Judge Martin left
the bench. Then, delighted de-
PENDANTS pummelled one another
and their lawyers, shook hands all
around and embraced their wives,
parents and children.
Jury Foreman Hugh Anderson,
a textile mill bookkeeper, refused
to discuss the acquittals. And other
jurymen could not be reached.
Roosevelt Carlos Hurd, sr.-named
in statements Of eight co-defend-
ants as shotgun executioner Of
Earle-was greeted by an elderly
woman who identified herself as the
mother of Samuel Stewart, another
defendant. Shaking Hurd's hand,
she exclaimed: Thank God for
you"
Nearly 500 persons jammed the
little courtroom as the jury filed in
with its verdict. Judge Martin Or
dered IA sheriff's deputies to take
up places among the crowd and
warned that any sound or any dem
onstration would be swiftly pun
ished as contempt of court.
The gallery, set aside for Negroes,
was by contrast almost deserted.
Barely a dozen Negroes listened to
the verdict.
There was dead silence as the
clerk read Sc separate verdicts of
acquittal-each name and the words
mot guilty" on the various counts
of the indictments.
All % defendants could have been
sentenced to death had the jury
convicted them of murder or of be-
ing accessories before the fact, with
o,lt recommendation for mercy,