FULL TEXT: Norfolk, Va. – What punishment will the Commonwealth of Virginia mete out to Dorothy Skaggs, a white woman, whose false testimony sent William Harper, 22, to the very shadow of the electric chair? And who and what will be done with the police officers who she said deliberately planted the luckless lad in the lineup for her to pick him out for the sacrifice of death?
These questions hung on the minds on the minds of a breathless
throng of white and colored men and women who heard a white jury pronounce
Harper not guilty after one of the most sensational “rape” trials ever heard in
this country, which ended here Saturday.
~ Sentenced to Die ~
Harper, who was a friendless and ignorant youth, was on
trial for the second time. He had been convicted of criminally assaulting the
white wife of a sailor and had been sentenced to die in the electric chair.
He was “identified” from lineup on January 6, as the man
whom Mrs. Dorothy Skaggs said had attacked her, pulled her into an alley and
criminally assaulted her. She went on the witness stand in the first trial and
swore to this. It was corroborated by a signed confession obtained by police
and, following conviction, the sentence of death was passed.
The conviction and sentence to death of Harper occurred on
January 29, and a week later the verdict was set aside by Judge A. R. Hankle,
who presided at the first trial, on the grounds that full disclosure of the
facts had not been brought out at the trial.
~ Sensational Development ~
Among the sensational developments brought out at the second
trial, which recruited in the freeing of the youth, were the following:
1. Mrs. Skaggs confessed to T. E. Gilman, white Portsmouth
attorney, that she had falsely accused the youth to cover up the fact that she
had spent the night of January 6, at an Elizabeth City (N.C.) road house with
W. P. Kid, a married man.
2. The white woman testified that the youth’s accuser was at
the road house at the time she said the crime was committed.
3. Mrs. Skaggs, it was testified, had stated that police
officers gave her the description whereby she “identified” Harper in a lineup.
It was stated that Harper was picked because he was ignorant and that there
would be little bother if he were sent to the chair.
4. Commonwealth’s attorney, Harry E. McCoy, had been
apprised of all these facts but refused to use them to the end that justice
might be done.
5. police officers “skeered” Harper into making the
“confession” which helped to bring about his own conviction and sentence to the
death chair.
A white jury at the second trial found the prosecution’s
trial found the prosecution’s case so openly false that it rendered its verdict
of not guilty without even having the cuused take the witness stand.
~ Ask Prosecution ~
An AFRO-AMERICAN representative here found an almost
community-wide demand that the Mrs. Skaggs be prosecuted on a perjury charge
and that the white police officers who “planted” Harper in the lineup also be
prosecuted.
A leading column-and-a-half editorial in the Norfolk
Ledger-Dispatch, white daily, calls upon Commonwealth’s Attorney McCoy to swear
out a warrant at once charging Dorothy Skaggs with perjury. “This woman,” it
says, “was on the stand, after having been put under a lawfully administered
oath, and swore falsely. She put an innocent man in the very shadow of the
electric chair by her false testimony. If this is not a material matter or
thing, then human life is not material.”
An AFRO-AMERICAN representative at the trial found Harper
almost unconcerned about what was going on. As the commonwealth’s attorney
cross-examined witnesses, he spat tobacco juice.
The prisoner’s desk was used as a press box, and before
court opened Harper sat and chatted with press representatives. There was no
evidence of mob spirit.
[“Perjury Charge Faces White Rape Accuser – False Testimony
of Dorothy Skaggs Gave Death Sentence. – Boy Acquitted – Police Said to Have
Planted Him in Lineup.” The Afro-American (Baltimore, Md.), Mar. 14, 1931, p.
3]
It's amazing how much of this history regarding the false rape claims has been dropped down the memory hole but special thanks to you for reintroducing these important stories so that the victims can be remembered and so that we can understand how old this game of courtroom misandry is.
ReplyDeleteFor ages women were not permitted to accuse men for this very reason. Women lie to cover up sexual misbehavior without realizing the consequences or, if they do, without giving a care. Once committed to a lie, the tendency to keep on lying is strong.
ReplyDeleteMany, perhaps most, women resent the burdens imposed upon them by biology. This is not a conspiracy by men. It is a natural consequence of the means of continuing our kind.
Historically, older women enforce the restrictions placed on younger women of prime reproductive age. Men didn't come up with these restraints.