The decade of the 1930s produced more state-sanctioned killing in Arkansas than any other decade during the twentieth century. Fifty-three men were electrocuted in the state's electric chair. Only the 1940s and 1920s come close to the thirties' fifty-three executions, with thirty-eight and thirty-six total executions respectively.

The Delta counties produced seven of every ten (for a total of thirty-six) defendants executed during the thirties (see Table 1). The Delta condemned were for the most part either forgotten men or media celebrities, depending in large part on whom they had killed or raped. Twenty-nine of those executed were black men, seven were white men. Six of those seven white defendants were the subjects of extensive newspaper coverage, while black defendants and their victims often died in relative obscurity, neither their crimes nor their executions attracting the attention of the local newspaper press. These black defendants normally killed black victims.

When black defendants did receive heavy local press coverage, usually they had killed white police officers or raped white women. The quickest ticket to banner headlines (and, in most cases, a speedy execution) for any defendant was to kill a police officer, or for a black man to rape a white woman. Those scenarios almost always produced huge headlines, volumes of news coverage, and in some cases extreme community reaction.

Between 1913 and 1964, when Arkansas executed its last man until 1990, three of every four defendants executed were from Delta counties. During the 1990s that changed dramatically. Of the twenty-one men executed during the 1990s, only three were from Delta counties. That speaks volumes about the changing economic, political, legal, and social realities in Delta counties in the 1990s as compared to the 1930s.

Some of Arkansas' most celebrated criminal cases occurred during the 1930s, often receiving a great deal of press attention. The first attempt to broadcast a criminal case was in the 1930s.[1] But the amount of press coverage is not the only important aspect. The content of press coverage also is significant, especially in death penalty cases. Some contend that the media's role in protecting the rights of defendants condemned to death is second only to that of the courts (Dicks 1991, 3). If that is so, then knowing how the press has reported on defendants who were condemned to die is important.

It is also important to understand whether the press commented about the judicial process for criminal defendants. For example, Holmes and Sunstein write that the right to receive a jury trial and the right to serve on a jury, regardless of race, are "time-honored" American liberties (1999, 160). However, what constituted a fair jury trial during the 1930s was vastly different from today, especially for black Americans in the Delta. The "time-honored" American liberty of serving on a jury simply did not apply to black citizens in the Delta. In some Delta counties the first black to serve on a criminal court jury since Reconstruction occurred in the 1930s, according to press reports. That means that all-white, all-male juries almost always tried black defendants. Press commentary, or lack of commentary, reflects such due process issues.

Others might say the media are responsible for unfair trials through what is reported prior to trial. Certain types of press reports might damage due process rights of criminal defendants, and yet the openness of the legal system to press and public is vital to the protection of individual rights of defendants.

Much of the study of the relationship between press reports and fair trials focuses on large media organizations, those with big regional or national circulations or viewerships, or the research focuses on nationally well-known cases. But these large media organizations often are not located in smaller local communities where the trials are held. And most criminal defendants, even those who commit heinous crimes, are not subjects of national press attention. It is better to study the local press because newspapers in the towns or counties where defendants commit crimes and are put on trial often have higher household penetration rates in those towns or counties than do larger statewide or regional publications. They might also have more credibility with the readers, who tend to trust the "hometown" newspaper more than the "elite" national or regional press.

American Bar Association and most state press-bar guidelines for free press and fair trial reporting list several factors that can damage the fair trial rights of a defendant, and the guidelines suggest aspects of cases that should not be reported prior to trial to guarantee defendants the exercise of their full Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights at trial. But many press-bar guides and U.S. Supreme Court rulings about prejudicial pretrial publicity did not come about until the 1960s, especially following the assassination of President John Kennedy and the speculative questions that were raised about whether Lee Harvey Oswald, had he lived, could have received a fair trial under constitutional standards anywhere in the United States.[2]

Most press-bar guidelines suggest that reports of a confession not be published, because the confession might not be admissible at trial. Also, speculation about possible evidence, about possible testimony of witnesses, or about prior criminal records can have an effect on fair trial rights. Guidelines also suggest that statements about the character of the defendant or witnesses should be avoided prior to trial.[3] The U.S. Supreme Court has reversed or remanded cases because of prejudicial publicity, and in some of the most famous cases the adverse publicity involved widespread publication of a confession.[4]

In the 1960s the U.S. Supreme Court strengthened criminal defendants' constitutional rights to a fair trial with due process of law. The press reports, of course, played an important role in the fair trial debate, but court decisions, especially in Sheppard v. Maxwell (1966), clearly placed the responsibility for fair trial and due process in the hands of the trial court judge. Sheppard presented trial court judges a list of alternatives to ensure fair trial. At that time, in the 1960s, these remedies might have included restraining orders against the press and closure of court proceedings. Later U.S. Supreme Court rulings in Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart (1976) and Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Virginia (1980) made these remedies difficult.

Also in the 1960s the U.S. Supreme Court strengthened fair trial or due process rights with rulings such as in Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), Mapp v. Ohio (1961), and Miranda v. Arizona (1966). The sum of the press cases and the cases involving due process rights held that police, prosecutors, and judges should take greater care to protect defendants' rights and that prejudicial information in the press might result in a new trial. These rulings might also have had an effect on press reports, either directly or indirectly. The direct effect might have taken the form of changing how the press reports on criminal defendants by raising awareness about ethical considerations. The indirect effect might come from a change in the information police and prosecutors give to the press or from the access government allows the press to criminal defendants. Ways to help ensure fair trial rights include refusal to provide information to the press prior to trial or denial of press access to defendants.

Also, an obvious problem in capital murder cases involves the races of the defendant and the victim. Studies have shown that defendants who are poor, who represent racial minorities, or who are strangers in a community are most often sentenced to death. Moreover, those who kill whites are much more likely to be sentenced to death than those who kill blacks or other minorities (Radelet 1989, 8-9). For example, how the press reports on black-on-white crimes as opposed to black-on-black crimes could influence social perceptions about the importance of black lives and could also influence the defendant's fair trial right. This is because "when African Americans are featured as news sources they are most likely to be criminals" (Grabe, Zhou and Barnett 1999, 295).

This study will look at press coverage of defendants in Delta counties who were put to death by the State of Arkansas during the 1930s. That coverage will be compared with that of defendants put to death in Arkansas in the 1990s (see Table 2). That all defendants were on trial for their lives means that each crime was considered serious by the state, and each raised the possibility of free press-fair trial questions. Because of that it is important to look at the coverage when the crime was committed, at arrest, and prior to trial. What is reported after trial is also important, but arguably not as important as what happens prior to trial. Juries are drawn from the communities in which the crime is committed, unless there is a change of venue or a change of venire. If news coverage has an effect on trials and on death penalties, it is before the trial, not after, that coverage most matters. Coverage of the executions of the defendants can help reveal the importance the newspaper places on the issue of state-sanctioned killing.

Another purpose of this research is to shed light on how race played out in the press as well as in the judicial system, and whether press coverage of racial minorities might have made a difference during the trials. Changes resulted in press coverage of criminal defendants after the "due process revolution" of the 1960s and after U.S. Supreme Court decisions pertaining to press access from the sixties through the early 1990s.

Case analysis is the primary method used here, although some descriptive tables are employed. Research was done at either the appropriate county libraries or the Arkansas History Commission, which maintains a comprehensive collection of Arkansas newspaper microfilm. In some cases records have been destroyed or lost, or I have been unable to identify where the source material is held. Such cases are noted as "NO INFORMATION" in Table 1.

Probably the worst abuse of a Delta defendant's fair trial rights during the 1930s was that involving Sylvester Williams, executed for raping and murdering a young white girl in Jefferson County. When black men were accused of raping or attempting to rape[5] white women in the 1930s Delta South, just getting the defendants to trial was sometimes considered a success. Lynching occasionally occurred. A fair trial, at least in terms that one might think of a fair trial today, was secondary. Author George C. Wright (1990, 3) has termed these "trials" that were obvious severe abuses of due process rights as "legal lynchings" because even though the defendant did receive a trial, the trial fell so far short of due process standards that the conviction and execution constituted virtually an extra-legal process.

Sylvester Williams, 22, was the last man executed in Arkansas during the 1930s. He died for the rape and murder of Irene Taylor, 19, of near Altheimer. The story about Miss Taylor's murder first appeared in the Pine Bluff Commercial on 5 May 1939. On 30 June, less than two months later, Williams was executed. The Commercial's story, the day's lead, began with a three-line bold headline. It was accompanied by a large photo of a grisly scene showing local officials looking at Taylor's body as it lay on the ground after she had been found submerged in a swampy area. Large pieces of metal had been tied to her body with baling wire. The Commercial's first two paragraphs told in graphic detail what had happened to her. It said she had been "criminally assaulted [a euphemism of the time for raped], her head twice bashed in, skull fractured, and apparently dead from strangulation." No doubt the writer meant her death had apparently been caused by strangulation, for there was little doubt that she was dead.

The next day's edition of the Pine Bluff Graphic--which was the morning newspaper while the Commercial was the evening daily-- reported that Williams had been arrested and had confessed to the murder. The headline was big and bold and streamed across the top of the front page. The story said newspaper reporters had sat in on the confession along with law enforcement officers. The two newspapers repeatedly reported in prominently placed stories that Williams had confessed to the killing. He had not been arraigned at this time. The result of his arrest was that a large mob intent on lynching Williams gathered at the Jefferson County Jail in Pine Bluff. Jefferson County Sheriff Garland Brewster used a clever ruse to distract the attention of the mob while his deputies spirited Williams out of the jail and into a waiting automobile, which took him to state prison for "safekeeping" under the mob's noses. The Commercial never called the mob a "mob," but instead referred to the people as a "group" or a "crowd" who had wanted to appoint "representatives" to see if Williams was in the jail.

The next day's Graphic praised Sheriff Brewster's quick action not because a life was saved but rather because the Wagner AntiLynching Law was pending in Congress and a lynching in Pine Bluff would perhaps have aided passage of the bill and led to "intermeddling by the federal government" in the affairs of the South. Another mob gathered at the jail about two weeks later, convinced that Williams had been returned, though he had not. Brewster refused to let anyone come in the jail and told the crowd that if they tried, "about 50 of you are going to get killed." The Arkansas Gazette on 6 May 1939 said police armed with automatic rifles, submachine guns, and tear gas stood at the jail.

Williams' upcoming trial drew enormous coverage. It was the lead story in both local newspapers. Sheriff Brewster said there were no plans to have Pine Bluff under martial law, but one probably could not tell it by looking around the courthouse. The Graphic said it was the greatest occupation of Pine Bluff by military troops since the Civil War. The Dardanelle National Guard unit was activated, and at least thirty-five men from the Pine Bluff National Guard were ready to back up the Dardanelle unit. State, county, and local police were also out in great numbers. At least six of the main uptown streets in Pine Bluff were blocked off.

The legal proceedings did not begin until 9:17 a.m., but the afternoon Commercial was able to report the result of the trial. The newspaper said Williams pleaded guilty, and then twelve jurors were selected to rule upon the degree of guilt. It took twelve minutes to select a jury in this highly charged atmosphere. The defense exercised no peremptory challenges during jury selection. The state called twelve witnesses. Williams' court-appointed attorneys called none. One of Williams' attorneys said in an opening statement that the armed guards protecting Williams to get him to trial left the attorney with the feeling that "this was truly the spirit of George Washington. . . . A man, no matter' who he is or what he had done, should have a trial." In his closing statement the attorney again praised the process and thanked the sheriff for allowing the attorneys to have "two or three hours" with Williams before he was tried. The jury deliberated fifty-five seconds, according to press reports. The "customary" forty-eight hour period between the jury finding and sentencing by the judge was waived, and Williams was sentenced to death. The Graphic in an editorial praised the process, saying: "For seeing that this humble Negro, without funds to retain counsel, was given a fair and impartial trial by a jury of 12 men, disinterested except in seeing that justice was done, officials of the county did indeed do a wonderful job."

The attorneys told the jury that defending Williams was "unpleasant," but that it was their duty to do so.

This was not the only instance of attorneys or judges explaining why they represented a defendant or apologizing for doing so. A trial judge in Union County reportedly told a packed courtroom that the black defendant's white, court-appointed attorney had to defend the accused or the man could not have been brought to trial. According to the El Dorado Daily News for 29 September 1934, the judge added that the lawyer "isn't receiving a penny for what he has done today."

In a Mississippi County case a lawyer from neighboring Craighead County defended two black men accused of rape. The court asked the attorney to defend the men after local lawyers "requested to be relieved of any responsibility for conducting the defense," according to the Blytheville Courier-News for 4 April 1935.

Williams' case also was not the only one in which defendants had to be moved to other jails or the state penitentiary before their trials to prevent possible lynchings. Ben Evers, who was executed in 1930 for murdering De Witt Town Marshal Perry Miller in 1929, had to be taken to the state penitentiary in Little Rock to protect him before trial. National Guardsmen were used to take Evers from Arkansas County to Pulaski County. Similarly, Robert Rose was taken to Little Rock from Independence County after being arrested and charged with murdering Deputy Sheriff Everette W. Wheeler. Frank and Bill Barnes were moved from Osceola (Mississippi County) to an undisclosed jail location to prevent possible mob action. Mississippi County police also outraced a would-be lynch mob to take James X. Caruthers and Bubble Clayton out of the Mississippi County jail to an undisclosed location. These two black defendants were accused of raping a white woman. Black defendant George Hill of Phillips County was taken to Little Rock after being charged with raping a white woman, and J.C. Banks, a Pulaski County black defendant, was taken to an undisclosed jail after being charged with raping a white woman and murdering a former policeman. In none of these cases did the newspapers raise questions about whether the defendant could receive a fair trial in the venue in which the crime occurred.

Extreme violations of defendants' fair trial rights were not restricted to black defendants. Lester Brockelhurst and Bernice Felton were tried for murdering a prominent businessman in Lonoke County in 1937. The murder occurred so close to the Lonoke-Pulaski County line that there were questions about where the two should be charged. The Arkansas Gazette closely followed the case and reported in a front page story that Brockelhurst confessed to the murder. In later stories that ran before trial the paper said he had confessed to murders in Illinois and Texas. The Gazette described Brockelhurst as a "baby-faced Sunday school teacher with the murderous soul of a Dillinger." The newspaper said his "wantonness has seldom been surpassed in modern crime annals." Brockelhurst and Felton were arrested in New York and extradited to Arkansas, despite Texas and Illinois also seeking extradition. Arkansas received a favor from New York Governor Thomas Dewey because New York mobster "Lucky" Luciano had been arrested in Hot Springs a year earlier and extradited to New York.

When Brockelhurst and Felton arrived by train in Little Rock, several hundred people were there to see them, and police had trouble clearing the train platform so that the two could be taken to a waiting police car. The Gazette ran a four-column, front page photo of them on the platform, appearing to play to the crowd. The news story makes it seem as if a news reporter rode in the automobile with Brockelhurst when he was taken from Little Rock to Lonoke. Once there, Brockelhurst and Felton were seated in opposite comers of the sheriff's office and a crowd of curious people were allowed to file through and see them. Reporters were allowed to interview them. The next day police opened the jail to the curious. A Gazette story said hundreds of people filed through the jail to see Brockelhurst and Felton as they sat in their cells. The people were put into small groups in the jail yard and then had to climb eighty-nine steps "for a fleeting glimpse of the accused pair." All of this occurred prior to arraignment. At the arraignment an estimated 350 people attended, and another 1,500 were outside, unable to get a seat.

For Brockelhurst's trial the office of court reporter was wired for telegraph so that news reporters could more quickly transmit their stories. Press reports said that about a thousand people jammed the courtroom, and many others stood in the corridors or sat on the courthouse lawn. A loudspeaker system was installed for those who could not get into the courtroom. The county provided benches and free ice water for those who had to sit on the grounds to listen to the trial.

Despite the intense publicity before the trial, the jury was selected with ease and was complete by 10:30 a.m. on the first day of the trial. The state rested by 2:30 p.m., the defense by 3:30 p.m., and by 5:15 p.m. the jury had received its instructions. The jury retired to deliberate at 5:30 p.m. and returned with a guilty verdict at 5:58 p.m. Felton was acquitted in a later trial that also drew much public and press attention.

No comment was made about parading the defendants before the public prior to trial or any of the other obvious abuses.

Black defendants were almost always tried before all-white juries. This changed in a few cases in the 1930s, but minimally so. Both the Crittenden County Times and the Memphis Commercial-Appeal reported that John Claybrook, 66, a black "landowner," served on the jury that convicted and condemned Frank Carter and Theo Thomas for raping a white woman. The newspapers added that Claybrook was the first black to sit on a Crittenden County jury since Reconstruction. One news report pointed out that Thomas and Carter had been convicted by a jury that included "a member of their own race."

The absence of black jurors was an issue in the trial of Bubble Clayton and James X. Caruthers in Mississippi County. In a federal court appeal of the convictions, black attorneys--referred to as "negro attorneys" in the Arkansas Gazette (10 March 1938)--argued that the lack of black jurors, among other things, resulted in an unfair trial. All appeals were denied. It was pointed out during the hearings that the trial level defense attorney and the trial judge had discussed the lack of black jurors but had decided that the defendants could better be defended by not asking for black jurors. The newspaper said a "longtime" Mississippi County official testified that he could not remember any black jurors during his thirty-eight years as a Mississippi County resident.

In the twenty-seven cases involving 1930s defendants, twenty-six reportedly confessed to their crimes. Some, though, later denied the confessions, saying they had been coerced or that the confession never occurred, but the newspaper headlines almost always reported to the communities the self-confessed guilt of the defendants. Often the press published confessions before the defendants were arraigned, much less tried, for the crimes.

Press involvement in these confessions varied from the more benign reports from official police sources, to sitting in on police interrogations during which the defendant reportedly confessed, to a defendant confessing his crime directly to a reporter.

Most commonly police told reporters the defendants had confessed, and the reports were published. Such confessions have to be taken with a grain of salt because of the possibility of coercion. The U.S. Supreme Court in the late 1930s and through the 1940s began overturning some convictions in criminal cases involving black defendants and coerced confessions (Ball 1998, 80-82). These Supreme Court decisions did not stop coerced confessions, however.[6]

Newsmen sometimes sat in on police interrogations. A headline in the Pine Bluff Daily Graphic about a defendant who reportedly confessed to a rape and murder said: "Negro Tells Officers and Newsmen Of Attack On Irene Taylor, 18, of Altheimer, Missing Since Tuesday." The story detailed how reporters were in on the interrogation with county and state police.

At times news accounts indicated that defendants confessed directly to newspaper reporters. For example, the Grand Prairie Leader in Stuttgart reported that Ben Evers, accused of killing a De Witt policeman, had admitted the killing to an Arkansas Gazette reporter. Similarly, Robert Rose, who was arrested for killing a local police officer, reportedly confessed during an interview with a reporter.

Direct confessions to reporters and reporters being allowed to sit in on interrogations of defendants illustrate the remarkable amount of access that newspaper reporters had to criminal defendants in the 1930s. At times defendants would be taken back to a crime scene and posed with police officers or shown "re-enacting" the crime. Newspaper reporters and photographers would record the re-enactments on the front pages of their papers.

When defendants denied that they had confessed to a crime, it was at times too late. Paul Nelson of Jackson County was executed for murdering an elderly Amagon man. Nelson's confession was reported in newspapers at Newport and Tuckerman. Some months later during his trial, Nelson said he never confessed. Among Nelson's last words before he died in the electric chair were that he was innocent of the crime. Also, when the confession was reported, there was no source for the information. The Newport daily newspaper wrote that Nelson "is said to have confessed."

Published confessions before trial were rare for condemned Arkansas defendants in the 1990s. Published confessions appeared in only five of the twenty-one cases, and in two of the cases publishing the information was almost unavoidable because the confessions were presented in open court at pretrial hearings. In both instances, those of Steven Hill tried in Pulaski County and of Johnie Cox tried in White County, the confessions were part of a pretrial suppression of evidence hearing. The press seems almost duty-bound to report information to the public when the information is presented in open court. Of course, having the proceedings in open court presents somewhat of a dilemma for the defendant if the confessions are ruled inadmissible at trial but are widely published. However, in Press-Enterprise v. Riverside Superior Court (1986) the U.S. Supreme Court held that such evidentiary proceedings are presumptively open to the public under the First Amendment right of assembly. Judges have other means to protect the fair trial right and can close the proceeding if certain steps are followed.

In a third case, defendant R. Gene Simmons committed two of his murders during the middle of the day in public in Russellville. Authories then discovered that Simmons had earlier murdered fourteen of his family, making him Arkansas' worst mass murderer. Publication of a confession in these cases was beside the point because Simmons was arrested during the commission of the Russellville murders.

Twelve 1930s defendants had criminal records that were published before trial. The reports often were repeated in subsequent stories. In at least one instance, that of Robert Rose, convicted in Independence County, the prior record report was attributed to no source. The Batesville Record reported that "it is known" that Rose had a prior record in Louisiana, but never indicated where the information came from.

Fifteen of the twenty-one defendants in the 1990s had prior records published before trial. However, circumstances may make publication of prior criminal record justified. In three of the cases the defendants were escaped convicts being sought by police. In six other cases police either in other jurisdictions in Arkansas or in other states were seeking the defendants. In most of those instances the offenses involved were serious and arguably needed to be brought to public attention because they involved important public policy matters and someone who had not been in custody. In one other case the defendant, Richard Snell, was charged with the murder for which he was eventually executed on the same day that he was convicted for another murder.

None of the trials of the 1930s defendants were moved to another venue to attempt to safeguard due process and fair trial rights. News stories suggest that there were very few requests made for a change of venue--depite the fact that in fourteen of the twenty-seven cases the defendants were moved from the county jails to other locations, often the state penitentiary. In ten of those fourteen cases the newspapers reported that mob violence or the threat of violence caused the move. Even in the four cases in which those reasons were not stated, it is hard to imagine any other explanation for moving the defendants. In seven of the cases the defendants were tried under heavy guard, provided by either police or police and National Guard. Six of the defendants were black, four of the cases involved rapes of white women by black defendants, and two other cases involved murders of police officers. Thus, in about one-fourth of the cases involving 1930s defendants the trials took place with armed guards in the courtroom and at times around the courthouse to protect against violence, and yet in no cases was it found that community prejudice against the defendant warranted moving the trial. In none of the cases did the local press comment about whether the defendants could receive a fair trial. In most instances little if any editorial comment occurred at all.

The case of George Hill, executed for raping a sixteen-year-old white girl in Phillips County, illustrates the conditions in which black defendants were tried. The first reports of the rape were in the 5 February 1933 issue of the Helena Daily World. However, no suspects were reported arrested until the 12 February edition, whose lead story carried a headline that read: "NEGRO CONFESSES CRIME OF ASSAULT ON YOUNG WHITE GIRL SATURDAY." One day later the newspaper reported Hill was taken to the state penitentiary for "safekeeping." Three months later Hill went on trial in Phillips County. Governor J. M. Futrell activated National Guardsmen from nearby Marianna. They were stationed in the corridors of the courthouse and at the courthouse doors. All of the Helena police, the Phillips County Sheriff's Department, and a special contingent of deputies were to be in the courtroom. It was announced that all courtroom spectators would be searched before being allowed to enter the courtroom. "All negroes will be required to go to the gallery, while the main floor of the courtroom will be reserved for white spectators," the story indicated. Hill reportedly asked to plead guilty, but trial court Judge W.D. Davenport rejected the plea and appointed three defense attorneys. The jury took "minutes," according to the newspaper account, to convict Hill. He was immediately taken from the courtroom to "a secret location" until formal pronouncement of sentence. Four and one-half months after the first report of the crime, Hill died in Arkansas' electric chair. He became a small note in history because he was the first man executed in Arkansas after the electric chair was moved from "The Walls," the state prison in Little Rock, to Tucker Prison Farm.

Five defendants in the 1990s had their trials moved. Although the number is not large, it is much more than that for the 1930s. And one could argue that there wasn't as much need for change of venue in the 1990s as in the 1930s because other due process steps often were taken to ensure that the public would not be so prejudiced against the defendant that a fair trial would be impossible. However, in two of the venue changes the move was so negligible as to be questionable as a means to protect fair trial. Charles Pickens, convicted for murders in Arkansas County, had his trial moved to DeValls Bluff in Prairie County, which was actually closer to the crime scene than the county seat of Stuttgart would have been. Marion Pruett's trial was moved from Fort Smith in Sebastian County to Van Buren in Crawford County. Van Buren is only about five miles from Fort Smith, and it is hard to imagine that the communities would not have essentially the same pretrial press information. John Swindler, executed for killing a Fort Smith policeman, was first tried in Fort Smith, but that conviction was thrown out by an appellate court. Swindler's second trial was in adjacent Scott County, located just south of Sebastian County. The press made little or no comment about the venue changes.

Perhaps the sharpest distinction that can be drawn between the 1930s and the 1990s for criminal defendants condemned to death involves the length of the judicial process.

The judicial process for defendants in the 1930s could be very swift, even in death penalty cases. According to the news reports, seven of the defendants (one-fourth of all the defendants) were convicted after the jury deliberated for less than thirty minutes. The jury convicted Sylvester Williams of rape and murder of a white woman, after a reported deliberation of fifty-five seconds. The jury was out for Purcell Mitchell, a black defendant convicted of murdering a white merchant in Union County, for five minutes. The jury took only seven minutes to convict Frank Carter and Theo Thomas, two black men, of raping a white woman in Crittenden County.

In the 1990s defendants always spent years in prison before they were executed. Wilburn Henderson was executed in 1998 for a crime committed in 1980. John Swindler was executed in 1990 for a 1976 crime, and Marion Pruett died in 1999 for a 1981 crime. Trials often took more than a year to complete from the date of the crime. Some of the defendants were tried more than once after having convictions overturned by appellate courts. The newspaper press commented little if any about the length of the judicial process.

Executions after trial were swift for the 1930s defendants. Eight of the defendants died within six months or less of the time of the crime. Tom Hutto, who murdered an El Dorado policeman, was executed just forty-three days after he committed the crime. Similarly, Robert Rose, who killed a police officer in Independence County, was executed fifty-one days after the crime, and Purcell Mitchell died fifty-seven days after his crime. Cases involving black defendants raping white women or defendants killing police officers were more likely to result in swift executions.

In none of the cases did the press criticize the speed of the system. If comment was made at all, it praised how fast the system worked to sentence a defendant to death. In the case of Tom Hutto, he was convicted and sentenced to death less than a week after the commission of the crime. An editorial in the El Dorado Daily News on 31 July 1937 praised the system, saying Union County had given the state a good illustration of speedy justice. The first mention of who had been appointed to defend Hutto came in the same story announcing the beginning of the trial.

Blacks killing blacks never attracted much attention in the press during the 1930s. The only exception was when Ben Butler shot and killed a black eighteen-year-old woman in Jonesboro in 1934. The Evening Sun ran an all-capitals headline across the top of the front page. It was the lead story. The large headline wasn't unusual since the Sun did that almost every day. But playing the story as the lead was unusual when compared to news coverage of other black defendants who were condemned to death for murdering black victims at the time. Stories about Butler's trial and about his execution also ran as leads in the Sun.

More typical of press coverage of black-on-black crime was that devoted to Tom Freeman, executed for murdering his common-law wife in 1935 in Chicot County. A short story about the murder and arrest ran on page 5 of the Dermott News. The story that got the most news play on page 1 in that edition was about a flower show coming to Dermott. Other front page stories reported that brothers had tied for a poster prize; that a local resident had made a "hit" at a Rotary convention; that local band students met; and that the American Legion Auxiliary and PTA had given essay prizes.

A two-paragraph story on page 1 a week later told of Freeman's indictment. Freeman did not appear in the newspaper again until 29 August 1935, when under a standing headline of "Among Colored People" a subhead said: "Chicot County Negro Electrocuted." The story ran on page 8, buried near the back of the newspaper. In four months Freeman had been arrested, tried, convicted, and executed, all in virtual anonymity in the local newspaper press.

Even more remarkable was the coverage of Milton Williams, who was executed for raping and murdering five-year-old Ruthie Mae Brooks, a black child. On 4 July 1939, a story on page 6 of the Arkansas Gazette told how the child had been murdered when she left an evening church service to go to the toilet, located outside the sanctuary. When she did not return, a search ensued. Her body was found under the church. The story ran under a one-column headline beneath the cartoon strips Moon Mullins and Joe Palooka. About a week later a story about Williams' arrest and confession ran on page 6. The story was adjacent to the aforementioned cartoon strips. Other news on the page included sports stories.

Williams reportedly had walked away from the State Hospital for Nervous Disorders, bought some bootleg liquor, then gone to the church toilet where he found the child, raped her, and murdered her. A series of stories and an editorial followed during the next three days. None mentioned Ruthie Mae Brooks by name, and only one mentioned the rape and murder. The stories concentrated on police supervision at the hospital, the conditions at the hospital, and a resolution to build a new building for the criminally insane. The last story mentioned the rape and murder, but Ruthie Mae Brooks was referred to only as a "Negro girl" who had been raped and murdered by a "Negro convict."

When Ben Hawkins and Mack Nelson were executed for murdering James Collins, a black farmer, and his housekeeper in 1935, the story got four short paragraphs on the front page of the Blytheville Courier News. The story about their convictions got one paragraph and was buried in the last paragraph of a story about a white farmer, Henry Todd, who killed himself by taking poison after he was convicted of murdering his son.

News stories in the 1930s always identified black defendants by race. This was common practice in all stories in which blacks were involved. Current Associated Press style rules hold that race should not be used unless a suspect is at large or the crime was obviously racially motivated.

Few black defendants were among those executed in the 1990s. However, in those few cases the defendants received heavy news coverage. This could be explained by the fact that all victims in the 1990s were white. Because no one was executed for a black-on-black crime, no conclusions can be drawn about news coverage for that type of case.

News coverage about condemned defendants has changed since the 1930s. Confessions are less likely to be published before trial, and judges are more likely to grant change of venue based on prejudicial pretrial publicity. The press is less likely to publish jailhouse interviews and to run pictures of accused defendants "re-enacting" the crime, Reporters are less likely to publish information about criminal defendants obtained during police interrogations, and defendants are less likely to be identified by race unless they are suspects at large.

The reason for these changes is probably not a new-found emphasis by the press on ethics concerning reporting about criminal defendants before trial. Although some states have press-bar agreements about what should be published, that is not the case in every state, including Arkansas. Even in those states where an agreement exists, it is voluntary on the part of the press. And no universal standards of press ethics exist.

Instead, the change in coverage occurred mainly because of the series of due process decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1960s and court decisions during that same time that overturned criminal convictions because of prejudicial pretrial publicity. Those decisions notified police, prosecutors, and trial judges that they had a heavy responsibility to ensure due process rights of accused defendants. The result is that officials increasingly shut off informal information flow to the press and to the public. That informal information came from the extraordinary access to criminal defendants allowed the press.

Ironically, formalized press access to the judicial process and to records has not resulted in an increase in information about the defendants. The press and public did not enjoy a constitutional right to such information until the U.S. Supreme Court rulings of the 1980s, but the press and public normally had such access before that.

The results of the Supreme Court rulings have been of mixed benefit, depending upon whose interests are involved. For the criminal defendant the results have been positive. Due process rights of the defendant are much greater in the 1990s than they were in the 1930s, especially for black defendants. That protection includes less pretrial prejudicial publicity that could damage fair trial rights. The due process rights also are better protected because judges are quicker to grant a change of venue in the case of prejudicial publicity and more often take other U.S. Supreme Court mandated steps to protect a defendant's right to due process and to a fair trial.

For the press the results of the Court's decisions are not as clearcut. The due process decisions and prejudicial publicity decisions have resulted in less information for the press about criminal defendants because access to the defendants has been sharply reduced. On the positive side, the press and public are constitutionally guaranteed access to most judicial proceedings and to many judicial records.

The public also seems to have received mixed results as a result of the rulings. The information about criminal defendants is decidedly less in the 1990s than in the 1930s. This means that the public knows less about defendants. However, how much the public needs to know and what kind of information the public is entitled to remains questionable. The benefit to the public is the benefit to society in general. That the right to due process is more protected for criminal defendants is surely a benefit to all society, especially in death penalty cases where a mistake can be irreversible. An investigative report in November 1999 by the Chicago Tribune on Illinois' capital punishment system shows that errors may be more common than previously thought.

Newspapers of the 1990s may not be as aggressive in reporting police news as were their counterparts of the 1930s. In these cases the crimes in the 1990s were high-profile, important crimes often committed in small communities. The crimes were much outside the normal course of events, and press coverage of all of the 1990s crimes was heavy in the individual communities.

While it cannot be said that the Arkansas newspaper press caused due process violations for 1930s condemned defendants or that the newspaper press contributed to those defendants' convictions, the newspaper press did little or nothing to voice concerns about obvious due process problems, especially for black defendants. The newspapers for the most part reflected the culture--which was a culture of obvious discrimination against minorities and defined "rights" in a much different way than they are defined today--and by doing so reflected the status quo. It would take the courts, not the newspaper press, to change that status quo.

Notes

1 The case was that of Lester Brockelhurst and Bernice Felton, tried for murdering a prominent Lonoke County businessman.

2 This is not to say, of course, that free press and fair trial is a recent issue. The issue has existed for most of the national history, but press-bar guidelines are a relatively recent phenomenon, as is the whole idea of "objective" news reporting in public discussion. See Marzolf 1991, 119.

3 For an example, see Pember 1999, 96-97.

4 See, for example, Rideau v. Louisiana (1963) and Irvin v. Dowd (1961).

5 For example, in South Carolina, Matthew Judge, a South Carolina black man, was sentenced to death for being convicted of "assault with intent to ravish a white woman." His sentence was later commuted to life when he was found to be "mentally defective." See "Death Sentence Is Commuted To Life In Prison," (Florence, SC) Morning News, 7 January 1947, 1.

6 In 1951 in Sunflower County, Mississippi, four young black men were beaten so badly by a county deputy sheriff and by a Cleveland, Mississippi, private investigator that three of the black men confessed to a murder that never occurred. The "victim" was later found at an aunt's house in St. Louis. Because of intervention by the FBI and the indignant response of the influential Memphis Commercial Appeal, the deputy was fired and the investigator extradicted to Illinois, where he was wanted for a parole violation involving a felony offense in Chicago. See Commercial Appeal, 24-31 July 1951.

Alford, Ambrosia. Camden Evening News, 18 July-8 November 1929.

Banks, J. C. Arkansas Gazette, 4 February-9 December 1933.

Barnes, Bill, and Frank. Courier News (Blytheville), 13 July 1934-28 September 1935.

Brockelhurst, Lester. Arkansas Gazette, 7 May-27 June 1937.

Butler, Ben. Jonesboro Evening Sun, 27 June 1933-9 February 1934.

Carter, Frank, and Theo Thomas. The Commercial Appeal (Memphis), 26 January 1937-7 January 1938; Crittenden County Times (West Memphis), 7 January-1 July 1938.

Clayton, Bubble, and James Carruthers. Courier News (Blytheville), 14 January 1935-30 June 1939.

Cox, Johnny. The Daily Citizen (Searcy), 2 November 1989-1 July 1990.

Evers, Ben. Grand Prairie Leader (Stuttgart), 21 March 1929-25 January 1930.

Fairchild, Barry Lee. Cabot Star-Herald, 11 March 17 June 1983.

Freeman, Tom. Dermott News, 9 May-29 August 1935.

Gardner, Mark. Southwest Times Record, 13 December 1985-8 September 1999.

Hawkins, Ben, and Mack Nelson. Courier News (Blytheville), 18 October-13 December 1935.

Henderson, Wilburn. Southwest Times Record, 27 November-11 December 1980, 9 July 1998.

Hill, James. The Daily World (Helena), 5 February 30 June 1933.

Hill, Steven. Arkansas Gazette, 17-23 October 1984, 2 February-9 March 1985.

Hutto, Tom. El Dorado Daily News, 22-31 July 1937.

Long, Eddie, and Willie Davis. Arkansas Gazette, 7 July 1929-14 November 1930.

McDaniel, Len. Arkansas Gazette, 8-9 December 1933.

Mitchell, Purcell. El Dorado Daily News, 7 September-3 November 1934.

Nelson, Paul. Newport Daily Independent, 24 May 1934-28 September 1935; Newport Weekly Independent, 8 June-23 November 1934; The Tuckerman Record, 24 August-9 November 1934.

Parker, Frank. Benton County Daily Democrat, 6 November 1984-13 November 1985.

Perry, Eugene. The Press Argus (Van Buren), 18 September 1980-30 July 1981.

Pickens, Charles. The Stuttgart Daily Leader, 20 October 1975-5 February 1976.

Pigue, Duncan. Arkansas Gazette, 5 February 1933. Richley, Daryl, James W. Holmes, and

Hoyt F. Cline. Benton County Daily Democrat (Bentonville), 9 January-6 March 1981.

Pruett, Marion. Southwest Times Record, 13-20 October 1981 and 12-13 April 1999.

Rector, Ricky Lee. The Log Cabin Democrat (Conway), 25 March 1981-26 January 1992.

Rose, Robert. The Batesville Record, 3 January-28 February 1935.

Simmons, R. Gene. Russellville Courier-Democrat, 28-29 December 1987.

Snell, Richard. Texarkana Gazette, 1 November 1984-16 August 1985.

Swindler, John. Southwest Times Record, 25-27 September 1976 and 18-19 June 1990.

Van Denton, Earl, and Paul Ruiz. Booneville Democrat, 24 June 1977-20 April 1978.

Wainwright, Kirt. Hope Star, 28 July 1988-9 March 1989; Nevada County Picayune (Prescott), 4-11 August 1988.

Washington, George, and James Turnage. Arkansas Gazette, 8 December 1929-14 November 1930.

Whitmore, Jonas. Montgomery County News (Mt. Ida), 21 August 1986-5 March 1987. Willett, Alan. Johnson County Graphic, 15 September 1993-8 September 1999.

Williams, Milton. Arkansas Gazette, 4-13 July 1939.

Williams, Sylvester. Arkansas Gazette, 6 May-26 May 1939; Pine Bluff Commercial, 5 May-30 June 1939; Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, 5 May-26 May 1939.

Williams, Woodie. Arkansas Gazette, 16 April 1932-15 July 1933.

Delta County Defendants, 1930s

Legend for Chart:

A - Defendant
B - DR
C - VO/R[*]
D - VR
E - C
F - PR
G - MJ
H - GT

A                          B         C
       D         E         F             G           H

Ben Evans                  B         Town marshal

       W         Y        --          Y[*]          --

Robert Rose                W         Deputy sheriff

       W         Y         Y          Y[*]           Y

Len McDaniel               B         Deputy sheriff

W NO INFO PAST EXEC.

Duncan Pigue               B         City marshal

       W         Y        --            --          --

Tom Hutto                  W         City policeman

       W         Y         Y            --          --

J.C. Banks                 B         Former police

       W         Y         Y          Y[*]           Y

Theo Thomas                B         Rape

       W         Y         Y             Y          --

Frank Carter               B         Rape

       W         Y        --             Y          --

Sylvester Williams         B         Rape/murder

       W         Y        --          Y[*]           Y

James Carruthers           B         Rape

       W         Y        --          Y[*]           Y

Bubble Clayton             B         Rape

       W         Y         Y          Y[*]           Y

James Hill                 B         Rape

       W         Y        --          Y[*]           Y

Milton Williams            B         Murder/rape

       B         Y         Y            --          --

Tom Freeman                B         Wife

       B         Y         Y            --          --

Ben Butler                 B         Lover

       B         Y         Y            --          --

Dennis Turner              W         Wife

       W         NO INFORMATION

Leroy Ware                 B         Postmaster/robbery

       W         NO INFORMATION

James Lawson               B         Planter/farmer

       W         NO INFORMATION

Clinton Mattock            B         Merchant/robbery

       W         NO INFORMATION

Ambrosia Alford            B         Merchant

       W         Y        --            --          --

George Washington          B         Merchant

       W         Y        --            --          --

James Turnage              B         Merchant

       W         Y        --            --          --

Willie Davis               B         Merchant

       W         Y         Y            --          --

Eddie Long                 B         Merchant

       W         Y         Y             Y          --

Purcell Mitchell           B         Merchant

       W         Y        --            --           Y

Woodie Williams            B         Merchant

       W         Y         Y          Y[*]          --

Luther Jackson             B         Merchant

       W         NO INFORMATION

Frank Barnes               W         Taxi driver

       W        --         Y          Y[*]          --

Bill Barnes                W         Taxi driver

       W         Y        --          Y[*]          --

Lester Brockelhurst        W         Hitchhike murder

       W         Y         Y            --          --

Willie Smith               B         Home robbery

       B         NO INFORMATION

Beverly Smith              B         Home robbery

       B         NO INFORMATION

Frank McCormick            B         Home robbery

       B         NO INFORMATION

Ben Hawkins                B         Home robbery

       B         Y        --            --          --

Mack Nelson                B         Home robbery

       B         Y        --            --          --

Paul Nelson                W         Robbed father-in-law

       W         Y        --             Y          --

Key: DR=Defendant's race; VO/R=Victim's occupation, relationship; VR=Victim's race; C=Published confession; PR=Published prior criminal record; MJ=Moved from local jail to another location; MJ with * indicates lynching attempt or possible lynching attempt as reason for move; GT=Guards, in forms of substantial police presence or National Guard or federal troops, at trial to maintain order. There were no changes of venue in any of the cases. * Victim's occupation or relationship does not apply in cases of rape. All crimes are murders except those indicated as rapes.

Defendants Executed

Legend for Chart:

A - County and defendant
B - Year exec
C - Confession
D - Prior rec.
E - Change venue
F - Race def.
G - Race victim

A                             B       C      D       E    F    G

AFTER 1976

Benton County

1. Daryl Richley           1994      --     --      --    W    W

2. James W. Holmes         1994      --     --      --    W    W

3. Hoyt F. Cline           1994      --     --      --    W    W

4. Frank Parker            1996      --      Y      --    W    W

Pulaski County

5. Steven Hill             1992    Y[b]   Y[a]      --    W    W

Montgomery County

6. Jonas Whitmore          1994      --   Y[d]       Y    B    W

Van Buren County

7. Eugene W. Perry         1997      --   Y[d]       Y    W    W

Logan County
8. Earl Van Denton         1997      --   Y[a]      --    W    W

9. Paul Ruiz               1997      --   Y[a]      --    W    W

Nevada County

10. Kirt Wainwright        1997      --      Y      --    W    W

Arkansas County

11. Charles Pickens        1994      --   Y[d]       Y    B    W

Faulkner County

12. Ricky Ray Rector       1992      --      Y      --    B    W

Lonoke County

13. Barry L. Fairchild     1995      --      Y      --    B    W

Miller County

14. Richard Snell          1995      --   Y[e]      --    W    W

Pope and Johnson Counties[e]

15. R. Gene Simmons        1990    Y[f]     --    See[f]  W    W
                                                   below

16. Alan Willett           1999      --     --      --    W    W

Sebastian County

17. John Swindler          1990      --   Y[d]       Y    W    W

18. W. Henderson           1998      --     --      --    W    W

19. Marion Pruett          1999       Y   Y[d]    Y[c]    W    W

20. Mark                Gardner    1999      Y    Y[d]    W    W

White County

21. Johnie Cox             1999    Y[b]   Y[d]      --    W    W

Key: b=Reported from a suppression of evidence hearing; a=Escaped convict; d=Being sought by police in other states; e=Was charged with murder for which he was executed on the same day he was convicted for murder in another case; f=Simmons murdered sixteen people and was convicted twice in separate trials involving different defendants in the two counties. All murders were in Pope County, but in the second trial the venue was changed to Johnson County; c=Venue was changed to Van Buren, Crawford County, which is five miles from Fort Smith, Sebastian County.

PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Headline from Pine Bluf Commercial for 25 May 1939.

PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Coverage of Brockelhurst Verdict from Arkansas Gazette for 25 June 1937.

PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): A story from the Jonesboro Evening Sun for 9 February 1934 reflects press coverage of the execution of black capital defendants.

References

Ball, Howard. 1998. A defiant life: Thurgood Marshall and the persistence of racism in America. New York: Crown.

Dicks, Shirley, ed. 1991. Congregation of the condemned. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.

Grabe, Maria Elizabeth, Shuhua Zhou, and Brooke Barnett. 1999. Sourcing and reporting in news magazine programs: 60 Minutes versus Hard Copy. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 76: 293.

Holmes, Stephen, and Cass Sunstein. 1999. The cost of rights: why liberty depends on taxes. New York: Norton.

Marzolf, Marion. 1991. Civilizing voices: American press criticism 1880-1950. New York: Longman.

Pember, Don R. 1999. Mass media law. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Radelet, Michael L. 1989. Facing the death penalty. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Wright, George C. 1990. Racial violence in Kentucky, 1865-1940: lynchings, mob rule, and "legal lynchings." Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.

PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Pilot House, Two Views. Photographs by Paul Hickman.