Friday, February 1, 2013

February 19/Cleveland: Contempt of Court: A Lynching that Changed the American Justice System

Ed Johnson was a young black man falsely accused of raping a white woman in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1906. Despite a lack of evidence, Johnson was tried, found guilty and sentenced to death -- all within three weeks of his arrest. The book also highlights the role of Noah Parden and Styles Hutchins, the only two African-American lawyers practicing law in Tennessee and North Georgia at the time.
In fighting for Johnson's life, Parden and Hutchins filed the first ever federal habeas corpus petition in a state criminal proceeding and convinced the Supreme Court of the United States to intervene. But before Johnson would have his day in court, an angry lynch mob, facilitated by the sheriff and his deputies, dragged Johnson from his jail cell and killed him on the county bridge.
Fortunately, the case didn't end there. At Parden's urging, the Supreme Court ordered the sheriff, his deputies, and leaders of the lynch mob arrested and charged with criminal contempt of the Supreme Court, which resulted in the only criminal trial ever held in the history of our nation's highest court.
Mark Curriden is the co-author of the critically-acclaimed Contempt of Court: The Turn-of-the-Century Lynching That Launched a Hundred Years of Federalism, tells the story in this fascinating and educational program!
Title:
Contempt of Court: A Lynching that Changed the American Justice System
When/Where:
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
5:00pm - 6:00pm
(Moot Court Room)
1801 Euclid Ave
Cleveland, Ohio 44115
Speaker:
Mark Curriden is an award-winning legal journalist, bestselling author, and frequent lecturer at legal organizations across the country. Educated as a lawyer, Curriden is a regular contributing writer on legal issues for the ABA Journal and for the New York Times DealBook on matters of corporate and business law. He also holds the position of Writer in Residence at the SMU Dedman School of Law in Dallas.
Credit:
1 hour ethics CLE pending
By:
  • C|M|LAW Alumni Association
  • CMBA 
  • Norman S. Minor Bar Association.
More:
https://www.law.csuohio.edu/newsevents/events/2013021917001874

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