FLORIDA KLAN
In November 1935 one of my relatives, Joseph Shoemaker, was murdered by the KKK in Tampa for union organizing. He was seized without warrant by the Tampa police and then "released" so that he could be kidnapped by klan members outside the police station. He was tarred and feathered, his genitals were mutilated, and he was beaten until partially paralyzed. He died a week later.
Seven police officers were arrested and tried. Two were given a directed verdict of acquittal by the judge, and the judge reduced the charges against the remaining five. After a jury found them guilty, the Florida Supreme Court overturned the verdicts in July 1937.
In the retrial of the Tampa police officers, the trial judge, Robert T. Dewell, severely limited the admissible evidence--including how Shoemaker had arrived at the police station in the first place. During the progress of the trial, Dewell also held multiple private conferences with counsel for the defendants. The state prosecutor tried to get Dewell disqualified, but the effort failed.
As Time Magazine reported: "Still more bewildering was Judge Dewell's refusal to admit testimony that one of the defendant cops struck Shoemaker on the head with the butt of his pistol. The indictment, he pointed out, mentioned only injuries to "body and limbs." The defense did not bother to present a case. Granting a motion by the defense, Judge Dewell last week directed the completely bewildered six-man jury to return an acquittal on the ground that the State had failed to establish the "actual or constructive presence" of any defendants at the scene of the murder."
This was the first time the klan had been put on trial in Florida, and the acquittals encouraged further use of vigilantism in Tampa and the state as a whole. No one in my family ever talked about this, and it is only with the widespread availability of scanned historic newspapers and journals that I know the story.
Seven police officers were arrested and tried. Two were given a directed verdict of acquittal by the judge, and the judge reduced the charges against the remaining five. After a jury found them guilty, the Florida Supreme Court overturned the verdicts in July 1937.
In the retrial of the Tampa police officers, the trial judge, Robert T. Dewell, severely limited the admissible evidence--including how Shoemaker had arrived at the police station in the first place. During the progress of the trial, Dewell also held multiple private conferences with counsel for the defendants. The state prosecutor tried to get Dewell disqualified, but the effort failed.
As Time Magazine reported: "Still more bewildering was Judge Dewell's refusal to admit testimony that one of the defendant cops struck Shoemaker on the head with the butt of his pistol. The indictment, he pointed out, mentioned only injuries to "body and limbs." The defense did not bother to present a case. Granting a motion by the defense, Judge Dewell last week directed the completely bewildered six-man jury to return an acquittal on the ground that the State had failed to establish the "actual or constructive presence" of any defendants at the scene of the murder."
This was the first time the klan had been put on trial in Florida, and the acquittals encouraged further use of vigilantism in Tampa and the state as a whole. No one in my family ever talked about this, and it is only with the widespread availability of scanned historic newspapers and journals that I know the story.