Grace Marsh

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Charge:	Disturbing the Peace (Incl. Breaching Public Order)
Sentence:	Fine
Years Imprisoned:
Year Crime:
Year Convicted:
Year Cleared:	1946
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	Alabama
County or Region of Crime:	Mobile
City of Crime:	Chickasaw
Result:	Judicially Exonerated
Summary of Case:	"Grace Marsh was wrongly convicted of trespassing for handing out informative Jehovah Witness leaflets on the sidewalk outside the post office in Chickasaw, Alabama. Chicksaw was a company town owned by the Gulf Shipbuilding Corporation. After her conviction she was fined. She appealed and her conviction was affirmed by the Alabama Supreme Court she appealed directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. Marsh argued that Chcksaw's public space was open to the general public, so it was subject to the same First and Fourteenth Amendment protections as the public space in a non-company owned town. On January 7, 1946 the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Marsh's conviction by a 5 to 3 majority vote on the basis it violated her First Amendment right to freedom of religion and speech. The Court's ruling stated: "Many people in the United States live in company-owned towns.[5] These people, just as residents of municipalities, are free citizens of their State and country. Just as all other citizens they must make decisions which affect the welfare of community and nation. To act as good citizens they must be informed. In order to enable them to be properly informed their information must be uncensored. There is no more reason for depriving these people of the liberties guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth 509 Amendments than there is for curtailing these freedoms with respect to any other citizen.[6] When we balance the Constitutional rights of owners of property against those of the people to enjoy freedom of press and religion, as we must here, we remain mindful of the fact that the latter occupy a preferred position.[7] As we have stated before, the right to exercise the liberties safeguarded by the First Amendment "lies at the foundation of free government by free men" and we must in all cases "weigh the circumstances and .. . appraise the . . . reasons . . . in support of the regulation. . . of the rights." Schneider v. State, 308 U.S. 147, 161. In our view the circumstance that the property rights to the premises where the deprivation of liberty, here involved, took place, were held by others than the public, is not sufficient to justify the State's permitting a corporation to govern a community of citizens so as to restrict their fundamental liberties and the enforcement of such restraint by the application of a state statute. Insofar as the State has attempted to impose criminal punishment on appellant for undertaking to distribute religious literature in a company town, its action cannot stand. The case is reversed 510 and the cause remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion." Marsh v. Alabama, 326 US 501, 510-511 (U.S. Supreme Court 1946)."
Conviction Caused By:
Innocence Proved By:	"On January 7, 1946 the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Marsh's conviction by a 5 to 3 majority vote on the basis it violated her First Amendment right to freedom of religion and speech."
Defendant Aided By:
Compensation Awarded:
Was Perpetrator Identified?
Age When Imprisoned:
Age When Released:
Sex:	Female
Skin/Ethnicity:	White
Information Source 1:	"Marsh v. Alabama, 326 U.S. 501 (1946) (Reversing state conviction of distrubing the peace because handing out Jehovah Witness leaflets on a company town sidewalk is protected speech under the federal First Amendment.)"
Information Location 1:	"https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=7287882985401537921&q=Marsh+v.+Alabama,+326+U.S.+501+(1946)&hl=en&as_sdt=6,48"
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Grace Marsh

Charge:

Disturbing the Peace (Incl. Breaching Public Order)

Sentence:

Fine

Years Imprisoned:

Year Crime:

Year Convicted:

Year Cleared:

1946

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Alabama

County or Region of Crime:

Mobile

City of Crime:

Chickasaw

Result:

Judicially Exonerated

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

Innocence Proved By:

"On January 7, 1946 the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Marsh's conviction by a 5 to 3 majority vote on the basis it violated her First Amendment right to freedom of religion and speech."

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

Age When Released:

Sex:

Female

Skin/Ethnicity:

White

Information Source 1:

"Marsh v. Alabama, 326 U.S. 501 (1946) (Reversing state conviction of distrubing the peace because handing out Jehovah Witness leaflets on a company town sidewalk is protected speech under the federal First Amendment.)"

Information Location 1:

"https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=7287882985401537921&q=Marsh+v.+Alabama,+326+U.S.+501+(1946)&hl=en&as_sdt=6,48"

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