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

Press Release
March 3, 1969

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 May 12, 2025.

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NAACP Legal Defense & Ed.Fund 
10 Columbus Cirle, N.¥.Cc.10019 

Send the following message, subject t0 the terms on back hereof, which are hereby agrecd to 

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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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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