U.S. Supreme Court Asked to Save Life of Alabama Negro

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

Collection
- Press Releases
Creator
- LDF
Taxonomy
Identifier
- e8203a99-bc92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b

Cite this item

Press Releases, Loose Pages. U.S. Supreme Court Asked to Save Life of Alabama Negro, 1960. e8203a99-bc92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/f2d3d37d-e5fa-419d-919b-90c1592e92e1/us-supreme-court-asked-to-save-life-of-alabama-negro. Accessed August 19, 2025.

Copied!

    _ 

DRESS RELEASE® ee e 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
1O COLUMBUS CIRCLE + NEW YORK 19,N.Y. ¢ JUdson 6-8397 

DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS > THURGOOD MARSHALL 
President Director-Counsel 

\\\ \ b- x i 
\\oew (11S |} 

U. S. SUPREME COURT ASKED 
TO SAVE LIFE OF ALABAMA NEGRO 

WASH., D.C., May 19.-- The U. S, Supreme Court was asked today 

to save the life of a youna Negro sentenced to death by an Alabama 

court for alleged burglary with intent to "ravish.” 

The condemned man, Charles Clarence Hamilton, 25, of Ensley, 

Ala. was arrested on the night of October 12, 1956 and originally 

charged with "nighttime burglary with intent to steal" for allegedly 

entering the bedroom of an elderly white woman. He denied the charge 

and insisted he was led into the house by the woman who spoke only 

semi-distinctly with a broken accent. 

Hamilton was represented at his trial on April 23, 1957 by a 

court-appointed white lawyer who tried to withdraw from the case at 

the trial but was prohibited from doing so by the judge. After a 

brief trial Hamilton was convicted on charges of burglary with intent 

to "ravish." The Supreme Court of Alabama, on September 17, 1959, 

affirmed the judgment and sentence of the lower court. 

Execution of the sentence was stayed by order of U. S. Supreme 

Court Justice Hugo L. Black on April 20, 1960 "pending disposition of 

a petition for certiorari to this Court [U. S. Supreme Court] upon 

condition that the petition for certiorari be filed here by May 20, 

1960." 

On May 5 the Governor of Alabama issued an Executive Order pro- 

viding that "reprieve be and is hereby granted until Friday, May 20th, 

at which time, unless otherwise ordered, let the sentence of death be 

executed," 

In an effort to head off the execution, attorneys for the NAACP 

Lega. Defense and Educational Fund today filed a petition with the 

U. S. Supreme Court asserting that Hamilton had no attorney when he 

was arraigned and that in death penalty cases defendants are entitled 

to legal] representation at every stage of the proceedings. 



The attorneys for Hamilton also charge that the trial was highly 

unfair in that the judge invited Hamilton to act as his own lawyer in 

conjunction with the court-appointed attorney. As a result of this, 

Hamilton repeatedly and seriously embarrassed himself and the judge 

reprimanded him several times in open court. 

In the petition filed today with the U. S. Supreme Court the 

attorneys asked that the high Court give the case full review. 

Attorneys for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund representing Hamilton 

are Thurgood Marshall, Jack Greenberg, Derrick A. Bell and James M. 

Nabrit, III, all of New York City, and Orzell Billingsley, Jr., Peter 

A. Hall, Arthur D. Shores and Oscar W. Adams, Jr., all of Birmingham, 

- 30 -

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.

U.S. Supreme Court Asked to Save Life of Alabama Negro

Collection

Creator

Taxonomy

Identifier

Cite this item

Copyright notice

Additional info

You may also be interested in