LDF Uses National Rape Survey to Challenge Negro's Death Sentence

Press Release
October 10, 1968

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LDF Uses National Rape Survey to Challenge Negro's Death Sentence preview

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  • Press Releases, Volume 5. LDF Uses National Rape Survey to Challenge Negro's Death Sentence, 1968. 9cdef709-b992-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/2e763ded-7049-4748-8935-e44b10aa163c/ldf-uses-national-rape-survey-to-challenge-negros-death-sentence. Accessed November 18, 2025.

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NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC 

efense und 10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 * JUdson 6-8397 

FOR PRESS RELEASE 
October 10, 1968 

LDF USES NATIONAL RAPE SURVEY TO 
CHALLENGE NEGRO'S DEATH SENTENCE 

WASHINGTON, D,C.-- A comprehensive study showing high death penalties 

for Negroes involved in rape of white women was presented to the U.S, 

Supreme Court this week. 

The study is pert of the defense of 2 Negro man on death row. 

This unusuel challenge was made by the NAACP Legal Defense and 
Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) attorneys who asked the High Court to 

reverse the death sentence of Arkansas Negro inmate, William L. Mexvell. 

Mexwell wes sentenced to the electric chair in 1952 after an oll- 
white jury found him guilty of raping a white woman 

The study used in the cese is based on the investigation of 2,500 
rape cases in 225 counties of 11 southern states. 

Noted criminologist and statistician, Dr. Mervin E. Wolfgang of the 

University of Pennsylvenia, who headed the study said, "On the basis of 

the foregoing findings, it appecrs that Negro defendants who rape white 

victims have been disproportionately sentenced to death, by reason of their 

race, during the years 1945-65 in the state of Arkansas." 

In Arkansas, 19 persons have been executed; seventeen of them were 

black. 

Dr. Wolfgang's report holds that very much the seme situation prevails 

throughout the United States, especially in southern and border states. 

Since 1930, for example, 455 persons have been executed in the United 

States for repe; 405 were Negroes. 

In Maxwell's case, LDF attorneys say three factors made Arkansas 

particularly discriminatory in the administration of capital punishment: 

denial of a fair opportunity to put before the jury information relevant 

to sentencing; absence of any rational standards to guide juries in 
sentencing; end racial discrimination in the selection of the jury. 

-30- 

NOTE: NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is a separate 

and distinct organization from the NAACP, Its correct designation is the 

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., which is shortened to LDF.

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