Seeks Freedom for Georgia Chain Gang Escapee

    PRESS RELEASE e e 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
107 WEST 43 STREET * NEW YORK 36, N. Y¥. © JUdson 6-8397 

ARTHUR B. SPINGARN THURGOOD MARSHALL 
President Director and Counsel 

WALTER WHITE ROBERT L. CARTER 
Secretary Assistant Counsel 

ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS ARNOLD DE MILLE 
Treesurer Press Relations 

SEEKS FREEDOM FOR GEORGIA CHAIN GANG ESCAPEE 

November 19, 195) 

WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 19.--Freedom for a Negro who fled the 

Georgia chain gang to safety in Philadelphia was sought this week 

in the United States Supreme Court by the NAACP Legal Defense 

attorneys. 

In a brief filed with the high Court last Monday, the attorneys 

urged the Court to set free Edward Brown now being held in a 

Philadelphia jail at the request of Governor Herman Talmadge and 

awaiting extradition orders. 

Justice in the Georgia courts for Brown will be impossible, 

the lawyers told the Supreme Court. To return him to the Georgia 

chain gang would be returning him to further inhuman punishment 

which may well result in his certain death. 

Brown was arrested 17 years ago for the accidental death of 

aman, At the advice of his white attorney, he pleaded guilty and 

was convicted on the charge of manslaughter and was sentenced to 

life on the chain gang. 

Shortly after his imprisonment double shackles were placed 

on his feet, his legs were chained together with 20 foot chains, 

and a 16 pound ball on each, Picks were put on his legs which 

stuck his buttocks when he tried to walk fast. 

Brown testified in the lower courts that he had been subjected 

to all sorts of cruel treatment which included being placed in a 

sweat box, a small structure in which a man can neither stand nor 

ie straight and which is exposed to the hot sun with no ventila- 

tion except a two-inch opening, with no toilet facilities or water. 

He was toatonwith blackjacks, rubber hoses and other instruments, 

he said, 



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On December 19, 1937, he escaped and on June 21, 190, was 

recaptured, Despite the promises of the Georgia prison authori- 

ties that the chain gang system was no longer in existence and 

that he would not receive the same kind of treatment he formerly 

did, the moment Brown was back in the State of Georgia, he was 

subjected to even more cruel treatment. 

Brown escaped again on September 22, 190 and was at liberty 

until 1947 when he was recaptured. The treatments on his recap- 

ture were the same as before except for chains. The picks, sweat 

box and other weapons and instruments used to torture the prison- 

ers were still in use, 

On two occasions he was put in the "stretcher" which resembles 

a medieval rack, Once he was strung from a tree by the wrists and 

beaten until the blood dripped from his body. On another occasion 

when he had caught cold he was given a half pint of castor oil, 

staked to the ground and covered with molasses to attract insects 

and animals, On this occasion the warden's son urinated in his 

face. 

In January 1950, he escaped once more and fled to Philadelphia, 

In April 1952 Brown was taken into custody and put into jail at 

the request of Governor Talmadge, and an order of extradition was 

issued, His case was first taken to the Court of Common Pleas of 

Philadelphia County for a writ of habeas corpus alleging that he 

had been subjected to cruel and unusual punishment while on the 

Georgia chain gang, The trial judge who heard Brown and his wit- 

nesses accepted Brown's story as true but because of an carlicr 

Supreme Court decision was compelled to deny the writ of habeas 

corpus. The case was then appealed to the Supreme Court of 

Pennsylvania which affirmed the lower court's finding, 

In their brief NAACP Legal Defense attorneys ask that Brown 

be freed on the grounds that (1) there was no effective legal remedy 

available to him in Georgia because the prison officials would not 

allow him to obtain legal aid, and (2) if he were to be returned to 

Georgia he would be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, 

Attorneys for Brown are Thurgood Marshall, director-counsel, 

and Jack Greenberg, assistant counsel, NAACP Legal Defense, and 

David Levinson of Philadelphia, 

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