Beware the Lynch Mob

Author Mark Curriden is both a journalist and a lawyer

Different people will take different things from last night's Lafayette College lecture about a turn-of-the-century lynching, which led to the first and only time that the United States Supreme Court has ever conducted a criminal trial. For the mostly black crowd in attendance, I'm sure that injustices to minorities were uppermost in their minds. But to me, Mark Curriden's lecture is a warning about the danger of mob rule, and the complicity of local government in facilitating this perversion of American government.

It's an interesting, if sad, story. A beautiful, 21 year-old woman was raped on her way home from work in Chattanooga in 1906. A Sheriff and Judge facing re-election needed to solve the case, and quickly. In 17 days, what the local press called a "Negro fiend" named Ed Johnson was arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to hang. A juror got up during the trial and said he wanted to kill Johnson himself.

What evidence exists showed that Johnson was innocent. He worked two jobs, and at the time of the rape, was working at a job several miles away from the scene of the rape. The victim could not even be sure her assailant was black.

While Johnson waited to hang, something very odd happened. For the first time ever, a black attorney was permitted to present an argument to the Supreme Court. And for the first time ever, the Supreme Court flexed its muscle over state criminal prosecutions, ruling that a defendant has federal constitutional rights in a state criminal prosecution. The Court directed the local Sheriff to keep Johnson safe, but he essentially thumbed his nose at the High Court, and allowed a lynch mob to drag Johnson away and hang him.

Johnson's last words to the mob? "God bless you all. I am an innocent man." They strung him up on a bridge, but he was taking too long to die. So they pumped him full of bullets.

As you might imagine, the United States Supreme Court was less than pleased that its orders had been violated. They had the Sheriff and lynch mob leaders charged with contempt of court, but their lawyers scoffed that the federal court had no jurisdiction.

States' rights and all that.

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., had a different view, and his is the one that counted. "This was murder by a mob, and was an offense against the State as well as the United States and this court ... and the United States has complete power to punish, whether the State does or does not."

The Sheriff and lynch mob members were convicted of contempt, did their time and returned home to a heroes' welcome.

Unfortunately, local government too often cowers before a lynch mob, whether it is a Chattanooga mob with guns or a fake preacher who wants to hang the County Executive, despite repeated court rulings against him.

The Case Against the Mobocrats

Northampton County Bulldog Ron Angle and I formed an Unholy Alliance to prevent government by mob rule on January 25. We filed a Court challenge to a proposed initiative that place Gracedale's fate in voters' hands, instead of the people they elect. Judge Stephen Baratta heard the case on Friday, and he'll rule on Wednesday.

As an active participant, I took very few notes. The Express Times and Morning Call both have excellent accounts.

One of the points I wanted to make clear is that, although both Ron and I were suing together, I was not representing him. We each represented ourselves. Angle got some chuckles when he told Judge Baratta, "Nobody can represent me."

It really was standing room only. Court Administrator Jim Onembo made room for the press in the jury box. And there sat Morning Call columnist Bill White, The Express Times' reporter Sarah "Sassy" Cassi and Morning Call reporter Jenna "I'm on deadline" Portnoy. A hanging jury, to be sure.

I did have a pretty good handle on the law and the myriad of arguments that preceded actual testimony. But when it was time to call my first witness, I got in trouble very quickly. Unaware that the Elections Office had copied the petitions I was complaining about, I flailed around with the originals, moving at a snail's pace. Fortunately, the judge took a brief recess.

"What now? Are you going to try your exploding shoe defense?" asked Attorney Rich Pepper. He was referring to a closing I had once given to a jury in a DUI case many years ago. While walking up and down, making my points, one of my shoes inexplicably fell apart. Then the other. The jury laughed their asses off and my client was acquitted. The general view is that the jury felt sorry for a guy who was stuck with such a lousy lawyer.

That story, and the neatly organized petition copies, settled me down. Things went smoothly from that point forward. Ron Angle took two of the witnesses himself, giving me time to get ready. He was excellent. Of course, he's had so much experience in courtrooms he could probably pass the bar exam.

Election law expert Larry Otter represented the Gracedale Initiative Committee and Gary Asteak represented two witnesses. Both were very tough and knowledgeable, but both were also gentlemen. Larry Otter really did give Angle a can of hornet spray.

In the afternoon, two witnesses admitted they had lied in their affidavits, and had not circulated the petitions claimed when the petition was filed. That's 3,498 signatures down the toilet.

There were similar problems with other petition circulators. Two of them, brought in by the USW, do not even live in Northampton County. One circulator had his wife fill in biographical information. Another circulator was not even a registered voter.

There was also a woman who admitted to handing out as many as 15 petitions at one time, making it impossible for her to witness each signature.

Otter scoffed at my suggestion that petitions were languishing in bars and clubs until I called Bill Coker, who testified that he saw unattended petitions in various bars.

The Gracedale crowd tried to shout out at one point during the hearing, but Baratta stopped that very quickly.

You never know what a judge is going to do. Obviously, I think he has little choice but to invalidate the Initiative petition. The testimony revealed a real disregard for the integrity of the election process. In addition to circulators who lied in their affidavits, Voting Registrar Dee Rumsey discounted 1,000 duplicate signatures. That's simply incredible. Another 1,000 she disallowed comes from people not registered to vote in Northampton County. Basically, 10% of the signatures were outright fraudulent.

I never knew that myself until she testified.

If the judge agrees with us, the Initiative is dead. We'll find out Wednesday.