Supreme Court to Hear Maxwell Case Impacting 435 Death Row Inmates Nationwide (Telegram)

Press Release
March 3, 1969

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Supreme Court to Hear Maxwell Case Impacting 435 Death Row Inmates Nationwide (Telegram) preview

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Press Releases, Volume 6. Supreme Court to Hear Maxwell Case Impacting 435 Death Row Inmates Nationwide (Telegram), 1969. b003bb58-b992-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/33d3db66-1190-4fbf-b873-ff19772a4089/supreme-court-to-hear-maxwell-case-impacting-435-death-row-inmates-nationwide-telegram. Accessed December 09, 2025.

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March 3, 1969

The future of 435 death row inmates across the country will hang in
q the balance Tuesday, March 4, when LDF attorneys argue before the U.S.

Supreme Court the case of William Maxwell, an Arkansas Negro convicted
of raping a white woman.

Life expectations of those facing death have been strengthened by
the record set in America during 1968--the first year in our history
during which no executions took place.

This. was accomplished by LDF (we represent more than half the
nation's condemned) and other attorneys at a time when public sentiment
is increasingly calling for repressive measures against crime.

Anthony Amsterdam, professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania
will argue the Maxwell matter for LDF. He will seek answers to two central
uestions: 1) should juries be permitted to impose death sentences without

standards to guide their decisions, and 2) whether it is unconstitutional
for a single jury to decide guilt and punishment simultaneously, thus
confronting defendants with the threat that they might help prove their
own guilt if they took the stand to offer evidence intended to mitigate
punishment.

Jesse DeVore, Dir. of Public Information

Mr. Oswald Johnston National News Desk

2515° "2" Sta, Now.

Washington, D.C.
National Press Bldg.
Washington, D.C.

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BALTIMORE SUN i WASHINGTON POST
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Miss Charlotte Moulton
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

Supreme Court Bldg.

Mr. Monroe Karmin
THE WALL ST. JOURNAL

245 National Press Bldg.

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Washington, D.c. 20004 . Washington, D.C.
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Mr. Lyle Deniston
WASHINGTON STAR

Mr. Fred
NEW YORK

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Supreme Court to Hear Maxwell Case Impacting 435 Death Row Inmates Nationwide (Telegram)

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