Davis Knight

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Charge:	Racial violation (including anti-miscegenation)
Sentence:	5 years
Years Imprisoned:	1
Year Crime:	1948
Year Convicted:	1948
Year Cleared:	1949
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	Mississippi
County or Region of Crime:	Jones
City of Crime:
Result:	Judicially Exonerated Released
Summary of Case:	"Davis Knight was wrongly convicted on December 18, 1948 of violating Mississippi's anti-miscegenation law in Jones County, Mississippi. Knight's indictment by a grand jury on June 21, 1948 and his prosecution was based on his marriage on April 18, 1946 to Junie Lee Spradley, who was white, while Knight was 1/8 black and considered a mulatto because his great grandmother, Rachel, had been black, while his great grandfather, Newt, and his grandfather and grandmother, and father and mother were white. His great grandfather Newt had been unable to marry Rachel under Mississippi law that prohibited a white person from marrying or cohabitating with a person who was 1/8 or more black. So Newt deeded 160 acres to Rachel and they lived on her farm. During Knight's trial the prosecution introduced census records to establish Knight's great grandmother Rachel was black. After Knight's conviction by a jury he was sentenced to five years in prison. Knight appealed his conviction. On November 14, 1949 the Mississippi Supreme Court reversed Davis Knight's conviction on the basis the prosecution conceeded it failed to introduce sufficient evidence to prove the essential element that Knight was 1/8 or more black. It has been suggested that the State of Mississippi dropped its opposition to Knight's appeal to prevent his conviction from being the basis for a federal habeas case that would result in a federal court declaring Mississippi's anti-miscegenation law to violate the U.S. Constitution. In 1967 the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Loving v. Virginia (1967) struck down the anti-miscegenation laws in Mississippi and seventeen other states."
Conviction Caused By:
Innocence Proved By:	"On November 14, 1949 the Mississippi Supreme Court reversed Davis Knight's conviction on the basis the prosecution conceeded it failed to introduce sufficient evidence to prove the essential element that Knight was 1/8 or more black."
Defendant Aided By:
Compensation Awarded:
Was Perpetrator Identified?
Age When Imprisoned:	23
Age When Released:	24
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:	White
Information Source 1:	"Davis Knight v. State of Mississippi, 42 So. 2d 747, 207 Miss. 564 (Miss. 1949) (Conviction reversed based on prosecution's admission it introduced insufficient evidence to prove every essential element of Mississippi's anti-miscegenation law.)"
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Davis Knight

Charge:

Racial violation (including anti-miscegenation)

Sentence:

5 years

Years Imprisoned:

1

Year Crime:

1948

Year Convicted:

1948

Year Cleared:

1949

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Mississippi

County or Region of Crime:

Jones

City of Crime:

Result:

Judicially Exonerated Released

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

Innocence Proved By:

"On November 14, 1949 the Mississippi Supreme Court reversed Davis Knight's conviction on the basis the prosecution conceeded it failed to introduce sufficient evidence to prove the essential element that Knight was 1/8 or more black."

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

23

Age When Released:

24

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

White

Information Source 1:

"Davis Knight v. State of Mississippi, 42 So. 2d 747, 207 Miss. 564 (Miss. 1949) (Conviction reversed based on prosecution's admission it introduced insufficient evidence to prove every essential element of Mississippi's anti-miscegenation law.)"

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