Trenton Six
The Trenton Six case arose in 1948 in Trenton, New Jersey, when six African American defendants were convicted by an all-white jury of the murder of an elderly white shopkeeper.
Crime
William Horner (1875–1948), was hit over the head with a soda bottle and killed at his second-hand furniture store, at 213 North Broad Street in Trenton. Horner's wife could not agree on how many men were actually involved with the attack itself, only that it was two to four light-skinned African American males in their teens. This occurred on the morning of January 27, 1948.
Arrests
The Trenton police, pressured to solve the case, arrested the following men: Ralph Cooper, 24, Collis English, 23, McKinley Forrest, 35, John McKenzie, 24, James Thorpe, 24, and Horace Wilson, 37 on February 11, 1948. All were arrested without warrants, were held without attorneys and questioned for as long as four days before being brought before a judge. Five of the six men charged with the slaying signed confessions.
Trial
The trial began on June 7, 1948, the State of New Jersey opened its case against the six based on the five signed confessions obtained by the Trenton police. There was no other forensic evidence, and Horner's widow could not identify the men as the ones in her store. The defendants were assigned four attorneys, one of whom was African American. On August 6, 1948 all six men were convicted and sentenced to death. All six had been able to provide alibis, and had repudiated their false confessions. An appeal was filed and an automatic stay of execution granted.
Appeal
In the process of appeal, the Communist Party USA took on the legal defense of half the defendants with Emanuel Hirsch Bloch acting as their attorney.[1] The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) defended the other half, seeking to get their convictions overturned. Among the NAACP attorneys were Thurgood Marshall, later appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States, Clifford Roscoe Moore, Sr., later appointed U.S. Commissioner for Trenton, New Jersey, the first African American appointed to such a position since post-Civil War Reconstruction, and Raymond Pace Alexander, later to become a judge in Pennsylvania. In the course of the appeal, trumped-up evidence was revealed and the medical examiner in Trenton was found guilty of perjury.
Outcome
English and Cooper were ultimately declared guilty, with a recommendation of mercy. The remaining four were found not guilty. English suffered a myocardial infarction soon after. Cooper, following an extensive course of legal maneuvering, copped a plea to murder and implicated all five of his co-defendants. He served a portion of his prison sentence and was ultimately released in 1954 on good behavior.[2]
Legacy
The international attention focused on the case included many notables, from W. E. B. Du Bois to Pete Seeger -- even Albert Einstein, who lived close by in Princeton, New Jersey. Commentary and protests were issued from many nations.
The accused
- Ralph Cooper (1924-?)
- Collis English (1925–1952). He died in prison on December 31, 1952 of a heart attack. His sister was Bessie English Mitchell.
- McKinley Forrest (1913–1982). He was the brother-in-law of Collis English.
- John McKenzie (1925-?)
- James Henry Thorpe, Jr. (1913–1955). He died in a car crash on March 25, 1955.[3]
- Horace Wilson (1911–2000)
Timeline
- 1948 William Horner, a seventy-two year old junk shop dealer, was killed and his common-law wife beaten in Trenton, New Jersey on January 27. Although the motive of such actions was allegedly robbery, the police found over $1,500 on Mr. Horner's person.
- 1948 The Trenton police, pressured into an early solution to the case, make arrests. Shortly after their arrest, five of the six men charged with the slaying sign confessions on February 11.
- 1948 The State of New Jersey opened its case against the six based on the five signed confessions. The defendants were assigned four attorneys on June 7.
- 1948 All are convicted and sentenced to death. All six had been able to provide alibis, and serious doubt had also been placed on the legality of the confessions. An appeal was filed and an automatic stay of execution granted on August 6.
- 1948 Bessie Mitchell, sister of Collis English, starts a public speaking campaign questioning the trial. The Civil Rights Congress hired O. John Rogge, William Patterson and Solomon Golat to seek a reversal of the court decision.
- 1949 Communist Party USA, American Civil Liberties Union, and NAACP support an appeal.
- 1951 Prosecutor Mario Volpe's attack of appendicitis causes delay in the second trial on February 5.
- 1951 Second trial resumed on March 5.
- 1951 Four of the defendants acquitted. Collis English and Ralph Cooper found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment on June 14
- 1951 Appeal for the two remaining defendants on September 11.
- 1952 New trial ordered for English and Cooper in November.
- 1952 Collis English dies in prison on December 31.
- 1953 Ralph Cooper paroled and disappears.
- 1955 Defendant James Henry Thorpe, Jr. dies in a car crash on March 25.
See also
References
External links
Further reading
- The Story of the Trenton Six, by Elwood M. Dean (New Century Publishers, 1949)
- Time (magazine) Monday, December 8, 1952; The Trenton Six. More than four years after the murder of William Horner, an elderly Trenton junkman, the case of the "Trenton Six" (TIME, July 11, 1949) was still dragging through New Jersey courts. The six Negroes convicted of the crime got a new trial in February 1951, after the state supreme court decided that they had been denied their due rights under law (e.g., the jury was improperly charged). After a mistrial, four of the defendants were finally acquitted, two were sent to prison for life. Last week, the New Jersey supreme court ruled that the lower court had erred again, ordered a fourth trial for the last two defendant. ...
- Time (magazine); Monday, July 11, 1949; The Trenton Six. The State of New Jersey had no reason to feel proud of its solution of the murder of aged William Hormer, Trenton junkman. For five days in February 1948, the Trenton police turned the heat on six young Negro suspects, finally got all but one to sign confessions that they were parties to robbing old man Horner in his shop, and to beating him to death with a pop bottle. During the 55-day trial the prosecution refused to say whose fingerprints were found on the murder bottle (apparently the evidence would have helped the defense), and was upheld by the trial court. The six were found guilty, sentenced to die in the electric chair. The Communist Party and the party-line Civil Rights Congress went to their rescue with rallies, demonstrations and screaming Daily Worker headlines calling it "a northern Scottsboro case." Non-Communist liberal groups joined in, and the case was carried to New Jersey's highest court. Last week Jersey justice redeemed itself. The New Jersey Supreme Court found that the Trenton Six had been convicted without getting their due rights under the law, set aside their sentence and ordered a new trial. ...