When was the first case of a black male acquitted of rape/murder of a white victim??

Most historians and people from a couple generations ago have poularized a concept that I was attempting to do a little research on, but I am having trouble finding anything with google searches.

The concept I am referring to is the “To kill a mockingbird” concept. The concept that in the US and later the south black men that people knew were innocent were convicted of rape to send the message that “no one gets away with raping a white woman”.


Appearently they were afraid that if/when the acquittal was publicized. That black men contemplating raping a white woman would consider it as an “all clear”.

So ANY black male charged was to be convicted “just in case an acquittal would send a bad message to the rest of them.”



So what was the date and state of the first acquittal of rape or murder by a black male with a white victim??!


I would really like to know that nationally and on a state by state basis, but I am unfamiliar about what the easiest way to find that information..

I am wondering how late historically it was before that dynamic changed... or even has it ever changed..

The math would make it impossible for it never to have happened in some states.. especially when the conviction rate on rapes is notoriously low.


Thanks to anyone who can help.

originally posted by: JoshuaCox

but I am unfamiliar about what the easiest way to find that information..

Go check out your local library.

You searched. Now do re-searching.

a reply to: JoshuaCox

Its so bad now though that if a the prosecutor seeks the death penalty in such a case he is considered racist.

a reply to: Logarock

Actually I am betting there are some states it might not have ever happened to this day..


You know what you will NOT have a problem researching??

Cases where black males were wrongfully convicted of rape or were lynched do to an accusation, often as small as whistling at a white woman.. .. there are literally thousands .. maybe tens of thousands..

a reply to: Logarock

Actually I am betting there are some states it might not have ever happened to this day..


You know what you will NOT have a problem researching??

Cases where black males were wrongfully convicted of rape or were lynched do to an accusation, often as small as whistling at a white woman.. .. there are literally thousands .. maybe tens of thousands..

a reply to: Logarock

More than that I bet EVERY SINGLE BLACK PERSON ON DEATH ROW is there for a crime against a white person.. lol

a reply to: JoshuaCox

Well yes this has been demonstrated time and again.

you are a racist

a woefully uninformed and ignorant racist

so here's a good one for you

how many violent crimes against white people are commit by black people and vice versa?

come back at me with those numbers and let's talk about racism

a reply to: toysforadults

Then please do explain lol..

a reply to: JoshuaCox

no seriously go do some research and figure out how many more times likely a white person is to experience a violent crime from a black person than vice versa

think the # is somewhere around 25x

a reply to: toysforadults

And Toys for Adults is blown out of the water by JosuaCox.

Oh those pesky facts strike again!

www.vox.com...

en.wikipedia.org...

ucr.fbi.gov...

a reply to: toysforadults

Oh that’s super easy..

White Americans have committed crazy more atrocities.. have you ever looked in a history book.


How many blacks lynched whites??


How many whole towns full of white citizens publicity tortured and executed some times while groups of blacks???


Jesus Christ the south let the slave population get up to close to 50/50 and rape and murder was absolutely even legal..

So that kinda makes all those who personally witnessed them accomplices..

At least by the legal standard today it for damn sure would...


Then you have the atrocities in the aftermath of the civil war. Where the gloves were off and all financial reason to not mistreat your slaves was gone and replaced with the blame for the war white planters started because “they didn’t know their place”.



Then you have the KKK resurgence of the 1920s

Then Jim Crow..

Then the segregationists..


Then the war on drugs..


Brother it isn’t even close by a mile...


The only place blacks have ever heald dominion is in the school yard and prison yard..

I don't know why a murdering rapist would be acquitted in the first place to be honest.

Strange question really.

a reply to: JoshuaCox

my family are Irish immigrants guess what nobody cuts us any slack because my family and their friends and neighbors were slaughtered and enslaved in coal mines well after slavery ended in the south

get over your hypocritical bs and racism nobody cares anymore there's little to no racism left in the the US and what's left is a massively small microcosm of the 1800's

a reply to: Stevenjames15

did you even read the states from your source?? per capita black people commit far more crimes just look at the #'s you post

it says right on your source

murder rates for
white people - 4,192
black people - 4,935

rape
white people - 12,571
black people - 5,412

robbery
white people - 33k
black people 41k

look these things are facts and measured as a % of the total population it really paints a bleak picture for mostly black men

clean your own house out before casting stones

a reply to: Stevenjames15

Well let’s be real here.. only one of us is doing any individual deductive reasoning..lo

a reply to: Ohanka

I mean when the wrong person is arrested and charged.. we know the cops don’t have a 100% “got the right guy” rate at all.


It is not some unknown thing.. it is the moral of the classic “to kill a mockingbird “.. any historian that has researched the period knows that was the case.


I’m assuming sometime within the last 50 years that changed, but for all of american history before that. An accusation WAS a conviction..



So what year was the moment that changed.???


Or has it changed..

What if it has never happened, in for example , my home state Mississippi.

Do you want to tell me there has never in Mississippi history been one black male the state falsely accused of rape/murder???


Not once did they get the wiring guy?!?!



So are these guys Batman??? Or are they working with Batman in some way???

If I’m right rape over all has a relatively low conviction rate..

originally posted by: JoshuaCox

So what was the date and state of the first acquittal of rape or murder by a black male with a white victim??!

You're approaching this all wrong--you should be looking into known wrongful convictions, which would be probably much easier to find.

Then you also must consider evidence "back then" versus it now--yes, I'm certain per the relatively racist history of the US that there were many people convicted based solely on skin color versus evidence, but the standards of evidence in rape cases have always generally been higher than one can prove, even now (and for good reason).

I would really like to know that nationally and on a state by state basis, but I am unfamiliar about what the easiest way to find that information..

You are treading in legal-research water that is vast and unending--this is the type of thing that takes legal scholars a LOT of time to compile. You're not going to get this in a request for info on ATS or a quick Google search, unless there are books out there already on this topic.

You should try calling up some Black-History museums and organizations--they may be able to help better than the average ATS member...and some of us not-so-average when it comes to legal-field professions.

I am wondering how late historically it was before that dynamic changed... or even has it ever changed..

Yes, of course it has changed. Hell, if O.J. got acquitted in the 90s of murder (that was rather obvious, IMO), times have absolutely changed.

The math would make it impossible for it never to have happened in some states.. especially when the conviction rate on rapes is notoriously low.

I feel like you're implying that black men get convicted because they're black still--I find that hard to believe in 99.9999% of cases anymore. But the reason that rape convictions are so low is because, as I noted, the standard of evidence to convict is very high, and often times, rape cases are reduced down to he-said-she-said instances, and those usually won't even make it to trial, and if they do, they will not end in a conviction without actual evidence.

When I worked on both the prosecution and defense side of the courtroom as a paralegal, most rape allegations ended in the withdrawal of the allegation after investigation determined...well, less-than-pure motives for the allegation on the "victim" side (lies, trying to hide an affair, trying to ruin careers, etc.). Of the cases that did make it to court, many of those ended in acquittal because, again, there wasn't enough evidence to convict or the victim left reasonable doubt on the table at the time of closing arguments.

I recall one specific time where I had to watch a defendant be transferred to the detention facility after being convicted on questionable evidence--I worked on the prosecution's side and I was convinced that he was not guilty, and I think that others on the prosecution side may have been, too, although they couldn't openly state it. I felt bad for that guy, whereas in most cases I loved seeing the defendant shuffle out of the courtroom in shackles and get put into the van to be taken to detention.

Sorry, I went off on a tangent, there, but what you are asking for either already exists in books or other research, I'd bet, but you're not really going to amass such information quickly or without access to good legal search engines.

Good luck, though.

a reply to: toysforadults

There was never a period in American when it was legal to rape, murder and sell the children of Irish immigrants..

There was however I’m sure a relatively bread period where if you were Irish and accused of crime they just instantly found you guilty... likely to set an example for the rest of the Irish..


I don’t know how that is relavnt when the same dynamic doesn’t exist today..



In the very recent past. Almost anyone with the power to act like a monster, acted like a monster..