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Wrongly
Convicted Database
Record
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Years
Imprisoned:
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0.2 |
Charge: |
Murder |
Sentence: |
Death and Lynched |
Year Convicted: |
1906 |
Year
Cleared:
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2000 |
Location
of Trial:
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Tennessee |
Result:
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Judicially Exonerated Posthumously |
Summary
of Case:
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"Wrongly convicted by an all-white jury in February 1906 of raping a white woman in Chattanoga, Tennessee. The woman was raped, but she did not positively identify Ed Johnson. Consequently, Johnson's conviction was apparently based on the racial outrage at the mere accusation he had raped a white woman. Johnson was sentenced to death, After Johnson's conviction was affirmed by the Tennessee Supreme Court, he filed a writ of habeas corpus in federal court. After it was denied he filed a writ of certiorari with the United States Supreme Court, on the basis that his trial did not conform with due process of law. The Supreme Court accepted Johnson's case for review and issued a stay. The county sheriff and judge did nothing to diffuse local outrage at what was viewed as meddling by the Supreme Court. A large mob seized Johnson from the county jail on March 19, 1906, and lynched him. Johnson's last words from the bridge where he was lynched are credited as being, "God Bless you all. I am an innocent man.'' On February 25, 2000, Johnson's conviction was posthumously set aside and his death sentence was vacated by Hamilton County Criminal Judge Doug Meyer on the basis there ." |
Conviction
Caused By:
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Innocence
Proved By:
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On February 25, 2000, Johnson's conviction was posthumously set aside and his death sentence was vacated by Hamilton County Criminal Judge Doug Meyer.
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Defendant
Aided By:
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Compensation Awarded: |
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Was Perpetrator Found? |
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Age
When Imprisoned:
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24 |
Age
When Released:
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Information Source 1: |
Contempt of Court - The Turn-of-the-Century Lynching that launched a hundred years of federalism, Mark Curriden and Leroy Phillips, Jr., Anchor Books (NY), 1999 |
Information
Location 1:
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Information
Source 2:
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1906 Conviction Overturned, By Amy Green (AP writer), Associated Press, February 25, 2000 |
Information
Location 2:
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http://www.truthinjustice.org/1906.htm |
Information
Source 3:
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Information
Location 3:
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Information
Source 4:
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Information
Location 4:
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Information
Source 5:
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Information
Location 5:
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Ethnicity/Skin:
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Black |
Book
About
Case:
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Contempt of Court - The Turn-of-the-Century Lynching that launched a hundred years of federalism, Mark Curriden and Leroy Phillips, Jr., Anchor Books (NY), 1999 |
Book
Information:
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Book About Case (2): |
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Book Information (2): |
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Movie About Case: |
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Comments About Case: |
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Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org