It was an unfair trial in which seven black men were sentenced to death in the US state of Virginia over 70 years ago for raping a white woman. The governor of the state acknowledged this today at the request of relatives.
In the US, the case has long been cited as an example of racist inequality in the legal system. Rape was punishable by death at the time. But Governor Northam emphasizes that at that time almost only African Americans were sentenced to do so.
During the time the electric chair was used in Virginia, from 1908 to 1951, only blacks have been executed for rape with it. Partly for this reason, Northam has granted a posthumous pardon in this case.
‘Wouldn’t have happened to white suspects’
The relatives of the executed people wrote in their request to the governor that they do not state that the men are innocent, but that all white suspects would never have received this punishment.
The victim in the 1949 rape case was Ruby Stroud Floyd, a 32-year-old woman at the time. She was selling clothes on that January 8 in a predominantly black neighborhood.
The seven suspects were all sentenced to death in court. Four of them were executed on February 2, 1951 in the electric chair. Three days later, the rest were put to death in the same manner.
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