Defense Fund Attorneys Secure Quick Relief for Shuttlesworth

    PRESS RELEASE 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
10 COLUMBUS CIRCLE * NEW YORK, N. Y. 10019 - JUdson 6-8397 
DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS JACK GREENBERG . 

CONSTANCE President Director-Counsel Associate Counsel ne ee 

Ss 

DEFENSE FUND ATTORNEYS SECURE 
QUICK RELIEF FOR SHUTTLESWORTH 

Supreme Court Acts Within 11 Days 

March 13, 1964 

WASHINGTON,D.C.--The U,S, Supreme Court this week reversed an Ala- 
bama conviction against Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, Birmingham integra- 
tion leader, 

The high court ruled within 11 days after the oral argument 
presented before it by Jack Greenberg, director-counsel of the NAACP 
Legal Defense Fund. 

Rev. Shuttlesworth faced 180 days in jail and a $100 fine for 
allegedly interfering with Birmingham police during the Freedom 
Rides of May 1961. 

The Justices delivered their swift ruling in three terse lines. 

This case grew out of an incident in the Greyhound bus station 
in Birmingham on May 17, 1961 when Rev, Shuttlesworth accompanied a 
group of freedom riders to the terminal, 

All had tickets to Montgomery and were slated for a 3 o'clock 
departure, However, they were forced to wait for a later bus be- 
cause the driver of the 3 pm bus refused to accommodate them. 

The Birmingham police then appeared to take the riders into 
"protective custody." Rev, Shuttlesworth is reported to have in- 
quired as to what was taking place. 

He was advised that such was not his concern, 

However, Rev. Shuttlesworth insisted on accompanying the riders 
to the local jail and was arrested. He was the only one of the grap 

against whom charges were pressed, 

Attorney Greenberg argued to the U.S, Supreme Court that the 
Alabama courts had denied Rev. Shuttlesworth due process of law on 
several grounds, The Supreme Court accepted the argument that the 
Alabama courts improperly affirmed Rev. Shuttlesworth's conviction 
on appeal on the theory that he assaulted an officer, although he 
had not been accused of this in the trial court, 

The Supreme Court rejected the city's argument that Rev. 
Shuttlesworth's appeal should fail because his lawyers filed a peti- 
tion in the Alabama Supreme Court on the wrong size paper, 

Rev. Shuttlesworth was represented by attorneys Peter A, Hall 
and Orzell Billingsley of Birmingham in the state courts. The 
Legal Defense Fund lawyers James M. Nabrit, III, Michael Meltzner 
and George B. Smith, all of New York, were listed as of counsel on 
the brief in the U.S, Supreme Court, 

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