Maddox v. Willis, Jr. Motion to Affirm or Dismiss

Public Court Documents
October 4, 1965

Cite this item

Maddox v. Willis, Jr. Motion to Affirm or Dismiss preview

Document text

The following text has been generated automatically during the document scanning process. It may contain errors, omissions, or incorrect formatting. Please refer to the PDF document if this text is not usable.

Download

By downloading, publishing, or reusing the Materials outside of the Website, you hereby confirm and attest that you have read and agree to the LDF Archival Collection Terms of Use linked below. We draw your attention to the following:

For those Materials owned by LDF, your use of the Material outside the Site is solely for one or more of the following (the “Permitted Purposes”):

Non-commercial research and private study;
Teaching, scholarship and instruction (including distance learning);
Non-commercial print and non-commercial online use;
Criticism, comment or news reporting; or
For people with visual disabilities (See Section 121 of the Copyright Act).
For those Materials not owned by LDF you understand that:
- It is your responsibility to determine whether the way you plan to use the materials falls within the copyright exception of Fair Use.
- For any use outside of Fair Use, it is your responsibility to seek and obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders.

LDF hereby grants you the right to use LDF owned Materials for the Permitted Purposes without seeking further permission from LDF.

If you publish or redistribute any Materials (including excerpts and quotes), you must include a credit line and/or proper citation to the source of the Material. However, you may not use the name of LDF in any manner which creates any false association between you and LDF or that incorrectly implies any sponsorship or endorsement of you by LDF.

NOTICE: Uses that do not comply with these Terms or that do not fall under Fair Use (or another exception) may make you liable for copyright infringement.

Read the full LDF Archival Collection Terms of Use Here.

I agree to the terms and conditions for use of this content.

If you would like to use this content in other ways, contact us at

Date is approximate.

Topic
- Economic Justice
Notable Person
- Jack Greenberg
Organization
- NAACP Legal and Educational Defense Fund, Inc.
Collection
- Brief Collection
Taxonomy
Identifier
- b49183d2-bc9a-ee11-be36-6045bdeb8873

Cite this item

Press Releases, Loose Pages. Supreme Court Asked to Reconsider Irvin Case, 1954. d61bc6de-bb92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/1039e2c6-b9e9-4e95-b38d-cb6a4705f438/supreme-court-asked-to-reconsider-irvin-case. Accessed August 19, 2025.

Copied!

    press RELEASE @ ® 

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 
Treasurer Press Relations 

CONSIDER IRVIN CASE January 22, 1954 

WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan, 22.-- A petition for reconsideration of its refusal to 

hear the appeal of Walter Lee Irvin from a death sentence imposed by Florida courts 

in the famous Groveland case was filed in the United States Supreme Court here 

January 19 by attorneys for the Netional Association for the Advancement of Colored 

People. 

Irvin was convicted of the rape of a Groveland farm woman in 1949 despite his 

steadfast denials and the contention of his lawyers that he was denied due process of 

law. He was granted a new trial by the Supreme Court, but he and Samuel Shepherd were 

shot down by the sheriff just before the new trial was to have been held in November, 

1951. Shepherd died of his wounds. A third defendant was shot to death by a posse 

before he was ever arrested. A fourth, a lad of 16 at the time, was sentenced to life 

imprisonment and did not appeal. 

Irvin was found "guilty" at the second trial in 1952 after a jury deliberated 

one hour and twenty-three minutes. After being denied redress by the highest Florida 

court, Irvin appealed to the nation's highest court last November, but a writ of 

certiorari was not granted. The present petition is a request that the Supreme Court 

reconsider and grant the writ.

Copyright notice

This collection and the tools to navigate it (the “Collection”) are available to the public for general educational and research purposes, as well as to preserve and contextualize the history of the content and materials it contains (the “Materials”). Like other archival collections, such as those found in libraries, LDF owns the physical source Materials that have been digitized for the Collection; however, LDF does not own the underlying copyright or other rights in all items and there are limits on how you can use the Materials. By accessing and using the Material, you acknowledge your agreement to the Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Materials.

Additional info

To the extent that LDF includes information about the Materials’ origins or ownership or provides summaries or transcripts of original source Materials, LDF does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy of such information, transcripts or summaries, and shall not be responsible for any inaccuracies.

Maddox v. Willis, Jr. Motion to Affirm or Dismiss

Topic

Notable Person

Organization

Collection

Taxonomy

Identifier

Cite this item

Copyright notice

Additional info

You may also be interested in