Two Black Men Exonerated 94 Years After Electrocution

[Dr. Cheese]

http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=ar...ica_news/13426

The two men are great uncles of the African American radio personality, Tom Joyner. He was able to secure their exoneration today about a year after the story of their framing came to light through research by Henry Louis Gates.

[Dr. Cheese]

Bump for some interesting and tragic history. I understand that this is the first posthumous pardon in SC history.

[iamlowsound]

I thought it was rather interesting. I enjoy seeing people exonerated for crimes they did not commit, regardless of race. It is only tragic that it took 94 years.

lowsound

[Dr. Cheese]

http://www.thestate.com/154/story/98...k=omni_popular

This is an article from The State newspaper in Columbia, SC. It was interesting to note that at the time of the victim's arrest, and trial, there was a petition in Chester, County, SC that was signed by many leading white citizens to pardon the Griffin brothers. The fact that there was interracial cooperation to save these men at the dawn of Jim Crow is a testament to the shaky nature of the case against them as welll as their character.

[kesslari]

Wow. Thanks for sharing that.

[Dr_Funkdamental]

This is why I support any new research in the area of gathering evidence or anything in that field. I believe there are quite a number of innocent ppl in prison (even on death row) that have been framed or due to bad representation or other factors that could be rectified with the right research and scientific evidence finding.

[IconBasser]

good for them.


a perfect example of my one qualm of the death penalty. Sometimes, the innocent get the chair by mistake

[Dr. Cheese]

Originally Posted by IconBasser

good for them.


a perfect example of my one qualm of the death penalty. Sometimes, the innocent get the chair by mistake

In this case, it probably was not a mistake. The men were killed because they were successful, and to cover up a sex scandal involving a Civil War veteran. Frame ups like this were very common at the time, and are probably more common than we would like to think as we speak.

[PSPookie]

The story is certainly tragic and I hope this brings a modicum of peace to the family, but the whole thing reminds me of the Vatican's apology to Galileo.

[Jim Campbell]

Originally Posted by iamlowsound

I thought it was rather interesting. I enjoy seeing people exonerated for crimes they did not commit, regardless of race. It is only tragic that it took 94 years.

lowsound

you should live here....every second guy they convict turns out to be the wrong guy.....

[Dr. Cheese]

This subject is interesting because it is a good example of how the past sticks to us whether we want it to or not. These men who died almost 100 years ago left an impact that is still felt today. Their families lost 130 acres of land, and were forced to leave the state. Tom Joyner, the nephew who requested the pardon, did not even know he had these two uncles until two years ago.

The family faced hardship and economic loss as a direct result of an injustice. In the case of Tom Joyner and his immediate family, they are quite wealthy, but many people who see themselves as honest, have benefitted from past dishonesty when they inherited ill gotten land and other property just as many who are poor were born into bad situations that were not of their own making.

I want to leave it at that because reparations is essentially a political argument. I just think that it is important to realize that even if we nowadays most do not have negative racial attitudes, it does not mean that the predjudice of the past still is not causing damage today.

[Mark Latimour]

Originally Posted by Dr. Cheese

This subject is interesting because it is a good example of how the past sticks to us whether we want it to or not. These men who died almost 100 years ago left an impact that is still felt today. Their families lost 130 acres of land, and were forced to leave the state. Tom Joyner, the nephew who requested the pardon, did not even know he had these two uncles until two years ago.

The family faced hardship and economic loss as a direct result of an injustice. In the case of Tom Joyner and his immediate family, they are quite wealthy, but many people who see themselves as honest, have benefitted from past dishonesty when they inherited ill gotten land and other property just as many who are poor were born into bad situations that were not of their own making.

I want to leave it at that because reparations is essentially a political argument. I just think that it is important to realize that even if we nowadays most do not have negative racial attitudes, it does not mean that the predjudice of the past still is not causing damage today.

I suppose one has to balance the issue of economic loss flowing from injustice against the protections afforded to a "bona fide purchaser without notice". In the absence of such protection, who would ever risk buying property?

[Dr. Cheese]

Originally Posted by Mark Latimour

I suppose one has to balance the issue of economic loss flowing from injustice against the protections afforded to a "bona fide purchaser without notice". In the absence of such protection, who would ever risk buying property?

I don't know Mark, that is outside of my area of expertise.

[Jim Campbell]

Originally Posted by Dr. Cheese

This subject is interesting because it is a good example of how the past sticks to us whether we want it to or not. These men who died almost 100 years ago left an impact that is still felt today. Their families lost 130 acres of land, and were forced to leave the state. Tom Joyner, the nephew who requested the pardon, did not even know he had these two uncles until two years ago.

The family faced hardship and economic loss as a direct result of an injustice. In the case of Tom Joyner and his immediate family, they are quite wealthy, but many people who see themselves as honest, have benefitted from past dishonesty when they inherited ill gotten land and other property just as many who are poor were born into bad situations that were not of their own making.

I want to leave it at that because reparations is essentially a political argument. I just think that it is important to realize that even if we nowadays most do not have negative racial attitudes, it does not mean that the predjudice of the past still is not causing damage today.

history is full of injustice and i wonder just how far back these reparations will go,and to whom......my forebears were driven from their ancestral lands to toil in english mills,prisons,workhouses,or worse,but i'm not expecting a check any time soon.......more pc folly dependent entirely on how much liberal guilt is available.....

[Dr. Cheese]

Originally Posted by Jim Campbell

history is full of injustice and i wonder just how far back these reparations will go,and to whom......my forebears were driven from their ancestral lands to toil in english mills,prisons,workhouses,or worse,but i'm not expecting a check any time soon.......more pc folly dependent entirely on how much liberal guilt is available.....

Go tell that to the relatives of Holocaust victims who ask for restitution since they actually have gotten some money. Tell Armenians mad at the Turks that they are all a bunch of whiners. It pretty much cost SC nothing to say an injustice was done to the Joyner/Griffin family.

As for your ancestors, they were given a pretty nice compensation: they got to run Native Americans off their ancestral lands or at least occupy them after someone else ran them off. Winnipeg is cold as crap, but other than that, I hear it is a really nice town.

This is all I will say about the topic since I really feel the focus should be on the two men whose names were cleared.

[john turner]

Originally Posted by Dr. Cheese

As for your ancestors, they were given a pretty nice compensation: they got to run Native Americans off their ancestral lands or at least occupy them after someone else ran them off. Winnipeg is cold as crap, but other than that, I hear it is a really nice town.

except, what about the folks -they- ran off? surely you don't think that all aborignal peoples of north america got along as one big happy family, do you? do you think that, because they were of similar ethnic backgrounds, these pre-european settler cycles do not count? the fact that the europeans had better weapons and more numbers does not change the fact that land changed hands in pre-european america as often as the folks who didn't have it could attempt to grab for it.

same thing happened, and happens still, all over the world, throughout history.

it's wrong to punish the folks that brought an end to this cycle just because their ancestors were the last ones to engage in it, imo.

[john turner]

about the original post - that's an interesting development. i hope that kind of thing (the exoneration of african american folks wrongly convicted and executed in the past) continues, tbh. folks need to remember what was rampant, especially in the south, so relatively recently - within a human lifetime, really, to retain perspective on where we are, and where we're going.

[Dr. Cheese]

Originally Posted by john turner

...except, what about the folks -they- ran off?

I, by no means, suggested that what happened to Native Americans was fair.

[Dr. Cheese]

Originally Posted by john turner

about the original post - that's an interesting development. i hope that kind of thing (the exoneration of african american folks wrongly convicted and executed in the past) continues, tbh. folks need to remember what was rampant, especially in the south, so relatively recently - within a human lifetime, really, to retain perspective on where we are, and where we're going.

I am always happy to see names cleared and injustices acknowledged. I would be even more happy to see adequate money put into public defense attorney programs and DNA resources. I would also love to see prosecution depoliticized as much as possible. As long as ambitious politicians can build their reputations as prosecutors, the system will be ripe for abuse.

[Thor]

If you are not aware of or have never heard of this case,
google this term:

Scottsboro Boys