NEGRO RAPE CASE

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28938, 4 July 1959, Page 13

NEGRO RAPE CASE

■ Death Sentence On White Man BEAUFORT (South Carolina), July 2. A white marine and a negro man were sentenced In the same Courtroom today to be electrocuted on August 14 for separate, inter-racial rape cases. ° Marine Private Fred. G. Davis, aged 24. was sentenced for the * rape of a 47-year-old negro woman. If he dies tn the elec- * **. chair as sentenced, it will «■- be the first recorded case in the United States of a white man’s " ® stecution f° r raping • negro About two hours after Davis’s sentence. Judge Henry Johnson , sentenced 19-year-old Israel Sharpe, a negro, to death for the attempted rape of a young white ' woman in her home. . a Davis has already filecr an “ appeal, and the death sentence wil] be stayed automatically pending appeals. Judge Johnson granted a defence motion to have Sharpe committed to a State hospital " for a 80-day medical examination. After these tests, the de- ; fence has 10 days in which to ■ appeal to the Supreme Court. * An all-white jury convicted j Davis last Monday and did not make any recommendations fet mercy. A similar finding was handed down by the six negroes and six whites—all male—on the ’ jury in Sharpe’s care last Tues- - day.