RAPE OF NEGRO GIRL

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28929, 24 June 1959, Page 15

RAPE OF NEGRO GIRL

Maximum Sentences On Florida Youths (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9.20 p.m.) TALLAHASSEE (Florida), June 23. The family of a 19-year-old negro girl raped by four white youths, yesterday commended Judge W. May Walker, who sentenced the four to life imprisonment. In a written statement the family said: “Judge Walker has meted out maximum sentences to each defendant in line with the jury’s verdict. “For this he is to be commended. “We are now in the process of trying to get our child rehabilitated and trying to forget the whole mess.

“We will for ever be grateful to State Attorney Hopkins and staff for the sincere and thorough efforts exerted in the case,” it said.

The name of the girl raped by the four is not allowed to be published under Florida State law, which protects the identity of rape victims.

Judge Walker, who sentenced the four youths to the maximum term for the crime, could have given lighter prison sentences or even released them on probation because the jury which convicted them recommended mercy for all four, thus sparing them the death sentence.

The Judge told the youths. “Yours was a horrible and deplorable crime.” They were lucky to escape the electric ’, he said. He recommended that they direct any appeal they might have to God. The four sentenced are: Wilton Collinsworth, aged 23, Patrick Scarborough, aged 20, David Beagles, aged 18. and Ollie Stoutamire, aged 16. They will become eligible for parole in six months, but the usual practice in Florida is for a life-term prisoner to serve at least 10 years before being paroled.

The sentence was on the front pages of all New York newspapers yesterday, which had seen the case as a trial not only of four men charged with rape, but as one of southern States’ justice. The sentence drew comment from some negro leaders in Tallahassee. The girl’s minister, the Rev David Brooks, termed the sentence “a turning point in the direction of equal justice.” But he added: “But 1 cannot help thinking of the four negroes now in the death house in our State prison for raping white women.”

Mr Brooks, the local leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, told reporters he was not surprised at the sentences because of “world opinion and Judge Walker’s previously demonstrated sincerity of purpose.” “Precedent Set” In New York the executive secretary of the N.A.A.C.P., Mr Roy Wilkins, said Judge Walker’s sentence “set a precedent which we hope other southern jurists will emulate.” He said the Judge had vindicated those southern whites who believed justice must be colour blind “and he renewed the hope of negroes that justice is an attainable goal.” Mr Wilkins urged Florida’s Governor (Mr Leroy Collins) to commute the death sentences passed on the four negroes now awaiting execution in the State prison for rape.

The New York “Herald-Tri-bune,” in a leading article todaysaid that in imposing the sentences Judge Walker “has set a standard that speaks well of the progress toward equal justice in his State.

“It’s true that Florida’s record of never executing a white man for raping a negro still stands, although 37 negroes have been executed in the State since 1925 and more are awaiting execution for raping white women.

“But although rape is an ugly crime, death is an uglier penalty. The better remedy for this remaining measure of inequality would be to do away with the death penalty for negroes, not to extend it to whites . . "it said. In Florida yesterday, one of the four negroes under death sentence for rape escaped it when Judge E. C. Welch granted him a new trial. The negro—a 16-yea’-old—-immediately pleaded guiF ■ and Judge Welch sentenced him life imprisonment.