The Body in the Tree

Two Klan members heard a jury had failed to convict a Black man in another case. Angry, they drove around at night looking for a lone Black man. They asked a young man for directions, then forced him into their car at gunpoint and took his few dollars. In a wooded area, one held the gun while the accused strangled the young man with a rope and cut his throat. They hanged the body from a tree in town. The accused says the state did not prove a real robbery, which the capital charge requires.