Introduction
In a country known as “The Land of the Free” it still is rife with racial tension! The following cases are spotlighted as the 20 “Trials of the Century as they spark racial tension, rape, murder, and scandalous affairs.
Henry Kendall Thaw (1906)
The son of a wealthy industrialist and a penchant for showgirls, Henry Kendall Thaw—who had a history of mental illness—was accused of the murder of architect Stanford White at a Broadway play on June 25, 1906. It was said that Thaw slept with White’s wife, popular model, Evelyn Nesbit, before Nesbit and White were married. A high-profile crime involving media frenzy, the first trial was deadlocked while the second trial ended in a not guilty verdict by reason of insanity but sent to an asylum. Nesbit testified, falsely in exchange for money from Thaw’s mother, that she was raped and abused by Thaw. Thaw was eventually released from the asylum in 1913, but due to mental illness, spent the remainder of his life in and out of mental institutions.
“Big Bill” Haywood (1907)
A prominent Socialist Labor Union leader, “Big Bill” Haywood went on trial in Boise, Idaho, for hiring someone to kill a former Idaho Governor who had crushed a miner’s strike several years earlier. As it divided the nation when thousands of labor union and socialist supporters marched in support of Haywood—a call that led President Theodore Roosevelt to denounce the protesters as “undesireable.” After famed defense attorney, Clarence Darrow, argued on behalf of Haywood, he was acquitted, due to Darrow’s only witness was a famed killer Henry Orchard. But ten years later, Haywood was found guilty of espionage, where he skipped the country to the Soviet Union, where he remained for the rest of his life.
Sacco and Vanzetti (1920-21)
Italian immigrants and anarchrists, Ferdinand Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, were accused of the 1921 armed robbery and murder of two men. A speedy conviction, due to prejudice against the immigrants and anarchrists, made this case international news. There was also a possibility of evidence tampering. After a new trial was denied due to the prejudicial nature, Sacco and Vanzetti were put to death in the electric chair in 1927.
The White Sox Team (1921)
Imagine throwing a game in the World Series? Well, that is what eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of in 1919. While the team, including two of the team’s best members, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and George “Buck” Weaver, were accused of taking money for intentionally losing the game. The defense argued semantics that differentiated the meaning between “throwing games” and defrauding the public”—that although the team took money didn’t prove they threw the game or defrauded the public—for which they were acquitted. Despite the verdict, the eight members of the Chicago White Sox were banned from the team by the Commissioner of Baseball—they never played in the Major Leagues again.
Fatty Arbuckle (1921)
Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, a huge silent film star in American Cinema, was accused of accidental rape and murder a young woman he had invited to a party. The woman died of an ruptured bladder three days after the incident, supposedly from complications of the alleged assault, when the woman’s friend told police Arbuckle had raped her. Evidence claimed Arbuckle’s weight had caused the injury, but after two hung juries, he was acquitted of wrong doing. But due to rumors and exaggerations of the case, Arbuckle’s career was damaged and he didn’t work another film for 10 years. Sadly, just as he was about to make a comeback, Arbuckle passed away from a heart attack.
Leopold and Loeb (1924)
Think the “perfect crime” can be committed? Well, that is what Nathan Leopold, Jr. and Richard Loeb, two elite college students thought they could do when they kidnapped and murdered a 14-year-old boy. They might have gotten away with it, except Leopold’s glasses were found at the scene of the crime. the senseless nature of the crime and the college students well-to-do images led this case to become a high-profile media coverage. Once again, legendary attorney, Clarence Darrow, defended the two men, in which he argued against the death penalty because of their idea of Nietzshaen “supermen” concept that they learned in college was taken too seriously and applied it to themselves. The defendants were spared the death penalty where they received life in prison. Loeb was killed in prison and Leopold was released 33 years later at age 53.
Scopes “Monkey Trial” (1925)
Clarence Darrow was the attorney in this legendary “trial of the century” when he defended John Scopes in 1925, who was on trial for teaching the theory of evolution—a violation of recently-passed Butler Act—forbidding the theory of evolution from being taught in state-funded schools. The trial led to a play and the film “Inherit the Wind” where Darrow was pitted against former Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, where Scopes was found guilty and sentenced to pay a $100 fine. The Butler Act was later repealed a year later when the US Supreme Court ruled the Act unconstitutional.
Gloria Vanderbilt (1934)
Gloria Vanderbilt, heiress to a multi-billion family fortune, was, at the age of ten, caught in a scandalous custody battle between her mother, also named Gloria, and her deceased father’s sister, Gertrude. The aunt alleged the elder Gloria’s sexual exploits and extravagant spending would cause irreparable damage to the heiress. Testimony from the mother’s servants, which included homosexual behavior, made headlines. The aunt was awarded custody of the heiress and the elder Gloria was given visitations on weekends and one month during the summer.
Lindbergh Kidnapping (1935)
Another “trial of the century” that shocked the world when the son of aviator, Charles Lindbergh, 20-month-old Charles Lindbergh, Jr., was kidnapped and murdered in 1932. After two years of investigation, German immigrant, Bruno Hauptman, was charged with the crime when he was found with some of the ransom money and some wood that was found at the crime scene matching wood used to make a homemade ladder. Claiming he got the money from a friend, Hauptman—deemed the Most Hated Man in the World—was found guilty and given the death penalty in 1937. Despite the verdict and subsequent execution, doubts still linger today.
Scottsboro Boys (1931-37)
In 1931, a group of nine black men and boys, whose ages ranged from 12 – 19 in Scottsboro, Alabama (subsequently deemed The Scottsboro Boys) were accused of raping two white women, 21-year-old Victoria Price, and 17-year-old Ruby Bates. Known as prostitutes, Price accused the nine men and boys allegedly deflecting the fact that Price was transporting a minor over state lines for “immoral purposes.” The first trial began in 1931 in Scottsboro, Alabama amidst an angry mob outside the courthouse in a segregationist south with a history of mob violence against black men accused of assaulting white women. A biased judge and an all-white jury sped the trial on with the defendants’ attorney being inexperienced and unprepared. With the refuting evidence of the women’s story, eight of the nine defendants were given the death penalty. The trial of ninth, 12-year-old, Roy Wright, ended with a hung jury when they couldn’t decide if the juvenile should receive the death penalty at such a young age. Groups like the NAACP, ACLU and the American Communist Party were outraged over unfair trials and the US Supreme Court in 1932 ordered the defendants to be retried due to being denied counsel in Decatur, Alabama. Again, despite evidence proving their innocence and Bates recanting her testimony the two women were not attacked, the jury came back with guilty verdicts and the death penalty. The US Supreme Court denied the verdicts citing that blacks in Alabama were denied a right to take part in juries. After a third trial and a black man appearing on the jury, the verdicts came back guilty since only a two-thirds was needed to sway the jury and the one black man on the jury wasn’t sufficient enough to gain a not guilty verdict. However, five of the nine men were found guilty, but didn’t receive the death penalty. Sentenced to life in prison, the men were released in the 1940’s after serving over a decade in prison for crimes they more than likely did not commit.
Nuremberg Trials (1945-49)
These were a series of trials that took place after World War II for German Nazi leadership in Nuremberg, Germany. The first, a high-profile trial from 1945-46, targeted the top Nazi officials for war crimes. Rulings were submitted from a panel of judges from the United States, France, Germany and the Soviet Union. 22 men were tried, 12 given death penalties, 3—life imprisonment, 4—sentences of 10 – 20 years and 3 acquitted. 12 more sets of trials were tried of lesser Nazi military, political, medical and economic Nazi officials between 1946-49.
The Rosenbergs (1951)
The first husband and wife team, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, American Communists and U.S. civilians, were convicted and sentenced to death for espionage. Julius, an engineer for the U.S. Army Signal Corp and Emerson Radio Corporation was accused of using his positions to transfer military and technology secrets to the Soviet Union. His wife’s alleged involvement was to type secrets and recruit spies, one supposed spy was Ethel’s brother, David Greenglass, who supposedly passed nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union through Julius. Protests of anti-Communists sentiment and anti-Semitism that raised public awareness of the trial and overrided public opinion of the trial that the couple was guilty. Despite the couple’s execution in 1953, that proved Julius was at least guilty of passing secrets to the Soviets, the harsh sentence drew protests from around the world.
Sam Shepard (1954, 1966)
Sam Shepard, a successful doctor, was accused of murdering his pregnant wife, Marilyn, in 1954. The defense that Shepard was knocked unconscious by a “bushy-haired” murderer raised doubts of Shepard’s innocence where the media proclaimed his guilt where he was found guilty and sentence to life in prison. However, after a decade in prison, the US Supreme Court ruled Shepard was denied due process due to bias from media and the judge ruling in the case. After being retried in 1966, he was acquitted, spawning the career of the famous F. Lee Bailey and famous television show and movie “The Fugitive.”
The Chicago Seven (1969-70)
Seven social activists, deemed “The Chicago Seven” were charged with conspiracy and inciting a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The members included Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden, David Dellinger, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner as well as an eighth, co-founder of the Black Panthers, Bobby Seale, who was dropped from the case after serving four years in prison for contempt of court. It appeared the defendants organized mass violent protests of the Vietnam War which collided with the police which the was televised for the public to see. The trial profiled social and political turmoil that was fueled by war, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy (both occurred earlier in 1968) and the Civil Rights Movement. All seven defendants were convicted and sentenced to five years in prison for inciting a riot in February 1970. The convictions were overturned in 1972 citing racial and cultural bias when the judge refused the defense attorneys to screen prospective jurors. The case was not retried by the Justice Department.
Charles Manson (1970-71)
Charles Manson is known for organizing a Los Angeles cult called the Manson Family, in which he instructed several members to commit murder in 1969 supposedly inciting a race war. The most notable victim, Sharon Tate, wife of movie director, Roman Polanski and nearly nine months pregnant, at the time of her death. Rife with theatrics, four of the defendants, including Manson, carved X’s in their foreheads, shaved their hair and exploded in public outbursts. Manson even tried to attack the judge. The other defendants tried to throw blame off Manson by claiming another ex-Family member was the real mastermind who testified against them. Witnesses outside the courtroom were intimated and injured and one defense attorney disappeared and later found dead. in January 1971, Manson and the other defendants were found guilty and sentenced to the death penalty, but when California outlawed the death penalty in 1972, the defendants were subsequently given life imprisonment.
Patty Hearst (1976)
Patty Hearst, a wealthy newspaper heiress, was kidnapped by the extreme Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) in February 1974, but in April 1974, Hearst announced she had joined the SLA. Participating in a bank robbery with members of the group later, pictures of Hearst holding a automatic rifle plastered news reports nationally. Arrested for the crime in 1976, famed defense attorney F. Lee Bailey argued that Hearst was brainwashed by the SLA, but was still found guilty and sentenced to 35 years in prison. President Jimmy Carter commuted Hearst’s sentence where she served less than 2 years in prison. President Bill Clinton pardoned Hearst in 2001.
John Hinckley, Jr. (1982)
John Hinckley, Jr. is famous for his assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan March 31, 1981. The trial began in 1982 with the defense claiming Hinckley as a troubled man who took his obsession with actress Jodie Foster too far after seeing Taxi Driver in 1976, believed he could impress the actress by killing the president. Originally targeting President Jimmy Carter, Hinckley settled on President Reagan two months into his presidency. Arguing that Hinckley was not guilty by reason of insanity, Foster even testified with bizarre letters and phone calls received from Hinckley. Despite the prosecution’s attempts to declare Hinckley sane, the jury agreed with the defense and he was committed to a psychiatric hospital where he remains today.
Rodney King Officers (1992)
In 1992, four white police officers were tried for the excessive force and assault with a deadly weapon in the arrest of Rodney King. What sparked national headlines was a videotape showing the officers beating King with a baton 56 times on television screens. With race quickly becoming an issue, the trial was moved from Los Angeles to the primarily white Simi Valley, fearing that pervasive media coverage tampered the jury pool, despite doubts making up the new jury, which had no African Americans. This further fanned racial tension by defense attorneys by asserting that the officers were racially biased against black people. Despite the four officers’ acquittal with excessive force with a deadly weapon, the jury remained deadlocked for Officer Laurence Powell. Public outrage over the1992 verdict sparked an L.A. riot causing over $1 million in damage to the city. The four officers were later indicted on federal charges violating King’s civil rights, where two of the officers, Powell and Stacy Koons, were convicted and served 30 months in prison.
O. J. Simpson (1995)
Former football star, O. J. Simpson was in the news when he was tried for the 1994 murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and her new boyfriend, Ronald Goldman. The crime became nationally known because of Simpson’s pro-athlete stature and his 50-mile police chase throughout L.A., which was viewed by nearly 95 million. Every piece of evidence, every person testifying and every attorney were held on public scrutiny as the case became high profile. The “Dream Team”, as Simpson’s high-priced defense attorneys were called, scrutinized evidence against Simpson claiming DNA evidence was tainted by investigative officer Mark Fuhrman, whose racial beliefs showed that the glove found at the crime scene did not fit Simpson’s hand. Attorney Johnny Cochran instilled in the jury, “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” Still, the Fuhrman testimony and resentment from the Rodney King case incited fury in the Simpson case. Simpson was acquitted with several members of the jury inciting it was more than likely due to the prosecution’s mishandling of the case than Simpson’s innocence. In 1997, Simpson was found guilty in the wrongful death civil suit where he was ordered to pay $33.5 million.
Bill Clinton Impeachment (1995)
President Bill Clinton was indicted in the impeachment trial, the second in a standing president in U. S. history, when he was accused of lying about his sworn deposition regarding the nature of his relationship with White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, with whom he’d had a brief extra-marital affair. The House of Representatives indicted President Clinton on the grounds of perjury and obstruction of justice to a grand jury on December 19, 1998. The Senate conducted the trial in January 1999, making unwilling celebrities from Lewinsky, informant Linda Tripp, and attorney Kenneth Starr, whose investigations led to impeachment. The Senate needed a 2/3’s majority (67 votes) to have President Clinton removed from office, only 45 votes came up on the perjury charge and 50 on the obstructive charge.
Conclusion
Will the racial tension lessen in America today, or will it continue to get worse?
Source
http://www.crschools.net/blog/20-trials-of-the-century/
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