Possession of Two Cans of Beer Brings Two Months Jail in Miss.

    10 Columbus Cirele ) 
New York, N.Y. 10019 j 
JUdson 6-8397 / 

NAACP 

“Legal Defense and Educational Fund 
PRESS RELEASE 
President 

Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers Re egal 
Director-Counsel November 9, 1964 Jack Greenberg 
Associate Counsel 

Constance Baker Motley 

POSSESSION OF TWO CANS OF BEER 
BRINGS TWO MONTHS JAIL IN MISS 

NAACP Legal Defense Fund Attorneys Seek Release 

NEW ORLEANS---NAACP Legal Defense Fund lawyers today (November 9, 1964) 
asked the U.S. Court of Appeals here to release a Negro citizen 

-; from a Mississippi jail where he has been held for two months for 
* "possession of intoxicating liquor." 

Clyde Harvey, active in Civil Rights in his native Leake 
County, Mississippi, was arrested on July 10, 1964 for having two 
cans of beer in his refrigerator. 

: Mississippi is allegedly a "dry" state. 

was rearrested September 9th and advised that he had been con- 
wicted of possession of beer subsequent to his earlier arrest. 

ee Mr, Harvey was reledsed the same day of his arrest. However, 

This was the first time he had heard of the conviction and 
sentence, Mr. Harvey told Legal Defense Fund lawyers in explaining 
why he did not ask for an appeal, 

By that date, Mr, Harvey's time to appeal---40 days---had run 
out. Legal Defense Fund attorneys noted that a summons for Mr. 
Harvey's arrest was issued on the precise day that his forty-day 
appeal period terminated. 

Two thirds of Mr. Harvey's jail term has already been served, 

He was returning from attempting to register his wife when 
originally arrested. The Harveys were also aiding workers of the 
Mississippi Summer Project sponsored by the Congress of Federated 
Organizations, 

Mr, Harvey sought out the local justice of the peace three times 
during the eleven days after his initial arrest and asked what the 
charges against him were on each occasion. 

He was told not to inquize again on his third visit and was 
advised that he would be told of the next proceeding. 

Then, on September 9, he was told that he had been tried on 
July 23rd (his first knowledge) and had been convicted and sentenced 
to the maximum of 90 days in jail and $500 fine. 

However, on October 7, Legal Defense Fund lawyers filed a 
petition in the U.S. District Court in Jackson, asking that Mr. Har- 
vey's case be removed to the Federal Court, that he be released 
from jail, and that reasonable bail be set. District Court Judge, 
Sidney R. Mize denied all three Legal Defense Fund motions on 
October 14th. 

An appeal was immediately taken to the U.S. Court of Appeals for 
the Fifth Circuit. Pending the outcome of that appeal, Legal 
Defense Fund lawyers are asking Judge Tuttle to release Mr. Harvey, ~ 
who has now spent two months in jail. “f 

The case is being handled by Melvyn Zarr of the Legal Defense 
Fund's New York headquarters; Professor Anthony Amsterdam of the 
University of Pennsylvania Law Schoo) and R. Jese Brown of Tackson, 
Mississippi. oa 

Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public Information—Night Number 212 Rlverside 9-8487 So B