Florida Negro Wants to Die Legal Defense Fund Says No

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NAACP 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund 
PRESS RELEASE 
President 

; Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers FOR RELEASE # Divina Friday 
Jack Greenberg February 12, 1965 

Associate Counsel 
Constance Baker Motley 

FLORIDA NEGRO WANTS TO DIE 
LEGAL DEFENSE FUND SAYS NO 

TAVARES, FLORIDA---NAACP Legal Defense Fund Attorneys are still 
pressing to save young Jerry Chatman from the dectric chair inspite 
of his desire to give up to death. 

The 24-year old Negro, along with Robert Shuler, were convicted 
of raping Charlotte Wass, a white woman. She is now confined to a 
mental institution, having a history of mental illness. 

More than four years ago, Circuit Court Judge D. R. Smith 
pronounced sentence on Jerry Chatman and Robert Shuler, using the 
usual line, "may God have mercy on your soul." 

After his defense attorneys had exhausted the normal appeal 
procedures and the death penalty stood, Jerry Chatman decided to 
seek his own brand of mercy. 

In a letter to Legal Defense Fund Attorney Tobias Simon, he 
said: "I ask you, Sir, as my attorney, to make all the arrangements 
with the governor so that I may be executed as soon as possible." 

In the same communication, young Chatman claimed that he is 
extremely ill and cannot receive adequate medical treatment at the 
Florida State Prison. 

"I haven't become all of a sudden unafraid of death", he 
continued, "it is just from my illness I suffer every day & from 
death I can only suffer once so I will take death in place of this 
madhouse." 

Chatman has been kept in “death row" during his four years of 
appeals, 

Legal Defense Fund Attorneys said, "We can well understand the 
desperation which may have prompted such a letter. However, we find 
it impossible to voluntarily comply with the request of the defendant, 
Jerry Chatman." 

The attorneys sought and were granted permission, by the 
Federal District Court, to continue their efforts to obtain a Writ 
of Habeas Corpus and a new trial. 

In the meantime, they are attempting to secure an order setting 
aside the death penalty and imposing upon Shuler and Chatman a 
maximum sentence of life imprisonment. 

Legal Defense Fund attorneys point to several reasons for 
continued legal action. 

* The Court appointed defense attorneys was allowed to withdraw 
from the case, leaving Chatman and Shuler without counsel at 
the time of their conviction. 

* There was conflicting testimony, possible suppression of 
evidence and perjury surrounding the admission into evidence 
of plaster casts of the defendants' footprints, supposedly 
made at the scene of alleged crime, and 

* The Legal Defense Fund believes that capital punishment in 
cases where a life has not been taken is a cruel and unusual 
punishment and violates equal protection of the law when. it is 
meted out mostly to Negroes. 

Last week, Jack Greenberg, director-counsel of the NAACP Legal 
Defense Fund, announced a national campaign "directed at capital 
punishment." 

"From 1930 to 1963," Director-Counsel Greenberg stated, "402 
Negroes were executed for rape, while only 45 whites met the same 
fate. 

(more) 

Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public Information—Night Number 212 Rlverside 9-8487 



Florida Negro Wants To Die -2- February 12, 1965 
Legal Defense Fund Say No 

"Strikingly," Mr, Greenberg continued, "there is no such 

disparity between the races in number of convictions for rape; an 

exhaustive study in Florida shows that 46 per cent of those convicted 
for rape in the last 25 years were white. 

But of those 46 white convictions, only one person was executed, 

while 35 Negroes died for the same offense," he said. 

Jerry Chatman closed his letter by saying: "I would like to use 

death as my peacemaker." 
o NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys Greenberg, Simon, Earl 

Johnson and Leroy Clark are feverishly attempting to remove him 

from the clutches of “death row" and give him at least a little 

‘peace of mind. 

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