Samuel Fielden

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Charge:	Murder (Conspiracy to commit murder)
Sentence:	Death
Years Imprisoned:	7
Year Crime:
Year Convicted:	1887
Year Cleared:	1893
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	Illinois
County or Region of Crime:	Cook
City of Crime:	Chicago
Result:	Pardoned
Summary of Case:	"Samuel Fielden was one of the Haymarket Eight, wrongly convicted of conspiracy to commit murder based on allegedly being associated with the making of speeches and writing articles that allegedly encouraged an unnamed man to throw the bomb at the police in the Haymarket Square on May 4, 1886 that killed 8 men and wounded 67 others. Several witnesses identified Rudolph Schnaubelt as the man who threw the bomb. After Schnaubelt was arrested and then released without being charged, it was claimed he was an agent provocateur paid by the authorities to throw the bomb and create an incident that could be used to undermine the labor movement in Chicago and the rest of the country. No evidence tied any of the eight to the bombing, but the stacked jury found them all guilty after less than three hours of deliberation. Seven of the convicted defendants were sentenced to death, with Oscar Neebe sentenced to life in prison. On Nov. 10, 1887 Louis Lingg committed suicide by exploding a dynamite cap in his mouth. The next day George Engel Albert Parsons, August Spies and Adolph Fisher were hanged. The sentences of Samuel Fielden and Michael Schwab were commuted to life in prison. Neebe, Fielden and Schwab, were pardoned on June 26, 1893 by Illinois governor John Peter Altgeld on the basis their convictions were a miscarriage of justice. "
Conviction Caused By:	Smeared as a dangerous threat to the American way of life.
Innocence Proved By:	"Illinois govenor John Petre Altgeld pardoned the three surviving Haymarket Eight, who had been convicted on the same evidence as the four who were executed and the one who committed suicide."
Defendant Aided By:
Compensation Awarded:
Was Perpetrator Identified?
Age When Imprisoned:
Age When Released:
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:	White
Information Source 1:	""Chicago Anarchists on Trial: Evidence from the Haymarket Affair 1886-1887," Chicago Historical Society website."
Information Location 1:	http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/ichihtml/hayabout.html
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Samuel Fielden

Charge:

Murder (Conspiracy to commit murder)

Sentence:

Death

Years Imprisoned:

7

Year Crime:

Year Convicted:

1887

Year Cleared:

1893

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Illinois

County or Region of Crime:

Cook

City of Crime:

Chicago

Result:

Pardoned

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

Smeared as a dangerous threat to the American way of life.

Innocence Proved By:

"Illinois govenor John Petre Altgeld pardoned the three surviving Haymarket Eight, who had been convicted on the same evidence as the four who were executed and the one who committed suicide."

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

Age When Released:

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

White

Information Source 1:

""Chicago Anarchists on Trial: Evidence from the Haymarket Affair 1886-1887," Chicago Historical Society website."

Information Location 1:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/ichihtml/hayabout.html

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