Strauder v. West Virginia

So, by this time we have all heard that a former president has been found guilty by a jury of his peers and is now a convicted felon. Of course, like a lot of felons he swears to gawd he ain’t do it.
Prosecutor: Sir, is that yo signature on this check paying a hoe off so she won’t tell y’all was doing the nasty when yo baby’s mamma sent you out to get some Pampers and milk?
Convict: Uh uh…
Prosecutor: Well sir, is this yo voice on this recording telling yo man… to pay the hoe off so she won’t tell them you wanted her to call you Pappa Wappa while she spanked you with a paperback copy of Mein Kampf?
Convict: THIS WHOLE TRIAL IS RIGGED!! … THE JUDGE IS CORRUPT AND HIS MOMMA’S SISTER BABYSITTER BROTHER IS BEING SUED FOR NOT PAYING HIS CABLE BILL!! ITS OUTRAGOUS!!
Anywho, so yeah, he was convicted by a jury of his peers and will soon being going to sentencing.
But you know, people take it for granted that it is your right to be judge by a jury of your peers, however not long ago, this wasn’t the case for African Americans.

Don’t Blame The Messenger

The date was April 17, 1872, and a black man named Taylor Strauder was out with his friends playing dominoes. Now it was well known, at least according to the neighborhood grapevine, that it was more than one straw in Strauder’s soda… by that I mean the word was that Strauder’s wife was seeing other men behind his back. As a matter of fact, one of the men who was with Strauder told him, ” If I was you, I would go home right now and start kicking all of it… I mean every last bit!!” Okay he didn’t say that, but he did tell him to go home.
So, it was in the early morning hours of April 18, 1872, that Strauder went home and saw or thought he saw a white man leaving out the back door of his house. Strauder kicked the front door in and accused his wife Annie of giving up the goodies right in his own mofokin house!! She denied it and an argument broke out. Now Annie had a child from a previous marriage, and she was also in the room while they were arguing, so I guess they decided to cool it for the child’s sake.
Strauder: Biatch… you better not go to sleep!!!
Annie: Don’t worry mofo… I’m not!!
Okay, history doesn’t say that exchange happened, but it does say they both laid down for the rest of the night. The next morning the argument broke out again. This time Strauder lost control of the dome machine and grabbed a hatchet from over the fireplace and hit Annie twice in the head with the blunt end. Annie fell dead. Now Annie’s daughter witnessed the attack and Strauder went over to her with a log in his hand, he put the log on the table beside her and whacked it repeatedly until it was cut in half… then he looked at the child and asked… “Did you see me hit yo mamma with this hatchet?” Child: “No suh… I was asleep in another city…” Strauder: “And it better stay that way…”
Okay no he didn’t… After he murdered his wife, he did threaten her, but only said if she told anyone, he would kill her too and then he ran.
A few hours later a relative found Annie’s body. At the coroner’s inquest, Fanny, testified that Strauder had killed her mother with the hatchet. Annie’s sisters also said that Strauder had threatened to whip it before and at one time had to be restrained by the police. A warrant was issued and a reward of $200 was offered for his capture. They describe him as being a mulatto, with a stock build, about 5’8 with a scraggy beard.
So, before we move on, a coroner’s inquest was like today’s grand jury. They judge whether a crime has been committed. Now I don’t know why the bail was so high. Two hundred dollars is about fifty-six hundred dollars in today’s money. I mean you could buy a two-room house in 1872 for three hundred bucks. Maybe it had been a long time since they had hung a Nigra and wanted to re-live the old days, but yeah, to me that was a great deal of money, especially for killing another black.

Give Me A Reason

So, with that type of money being offered for Strauder’s arrest, and with him being a black man and all, the force was strong with the bounty hunters. There were several mistaken arrest. One dude was arrested because he was riding his horse fast through town. He gained more suspicion when he turned off the road into the woods.
Bounty: Nigra what you in such a hurry for? You are riding through town like you killed somebody? You saw us following you and then you turned off into these woods… you killed that gal, didn’t you?.. Give me a reason why I shouldn’t hang you right now from the tallest tree I can…
Black: I turned off the road because I have to pee…
Later they found out that wasn’t the man they were looking for. They were harassing every black man that came through the area where Annie was murdered. It all ended when Strauder was captured by the police in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He had been working as a carpenter.
What happened was that plainclothes police walked up to him and asked if he could use his hatchet to drive some nails. When Strauder gave it to him, another the police officer pulled out his revolver and told him what he was being accused of. Strauder denied it, saying his name was Johnson and he had never been to Wheeling, West Virginia. Wheeling is where the murder took place. Strauder said he wasn’t even a married man. The police were like. “Nigra please…”
They took him down to the police station where a couple of other “darkies” who were from Wheeling identified him.
Police: Ima tell you right now Nigra… aint gonna be no trial if I don’t get a confession by the time I hang this rope in yo cell… it gonna be a suicide…
Strauder confessed. He told the two brothers that had ratted him out, that he had good cause to kill Annie, but that now he was sorry for what he did.

That’s The Tallest One We Have Judge

So, they took him back to Wheeling, West Virginia. He was accompanied by officers from both Wheeling and Pennsylvania. A large crowd met the train at Wheeling, and cries of “hang him, shoot him,” were heard. I think I read somewhere where somebody said cut them off too… but I might be mistaken… Funny thing is that both blacks and whites were shouting for his hanging. As they took him inside the jail, he was assaulted by the crowd with sticks and rocks. They finally got him in there and he was asked did he want a preliminary hearing. That’s where they ask if you want a lawyer and what your plea would be. Strauder said he had sent for a lawyer but that the man had not answered him back. Another lawyer named George O. Davenport was sent for. He took Strauder to the back and two or three minutes later came out and accepted to defend him.
A month later Strauder was charged with first degree murder while being half black… black men don’t get trials or lawyers; we just take out back and hang them from the tallest tree we can find… okay I am kidding… but he was charged with first degree murder.
Davenport entered the plea for Strauder of not guilty by reason of “temporary insanity resulting… from Strauder’s domestic difficulty.”
Strauder was found guilty by an all-white jury after an hour and a half of deliberations. Davenport and his partner Dovener asked for a retrial and listed a number of errors in the proceedings. The judge overruled all of them and told the lawyers that there was more than one tree in the back… no he didn’t… he just overruled them. He then asked Strauder if he had anything to say. Strauder said simply, “I don’t think I’ve had a fair trial. The judge said, bailiff cut them off before you hang him… now take him away!! Okay let me stop…
The judge pointed out that the jury had acted impartially, witnesses had described his confession and the murder had been unusually brutal having been committed in front of a nine-year-old child. The Judge told Strauder that he didn’t appreciate the terrible situation he was in. This was also picked up by the local newspapers that said Strauder appear to show no emotion at the trial but seemed to have a grin on his face throughout the proceeding. Personally, I think they were ginning up the townsfolks to go big. Going big means boil him in oil first, then hang him…
Anyway, the Judge suggested that Strauder should “abandon expectation of another trial… and try to make his peace with the Almighty Being whose law he had violated by his fearful crime.” In other words, you will be lucky to get out this courtroom alive. He ordered that Strauder be hung by the neck until dead, at a location outside the Wheeling corporate limits. The reason he wanted it outside the city limits was because the jail yard wasn’t big enough to hold the expected spectators who wanted to watch a nigra hung without them.

You Are In Good Hands With Allstate

Davenport appealed the case to the state Supreme Court of Appeals, on numerous grounds, including the West Virginia Statutory exclusion of blacks from juries, which he held to be a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Although the court struck down most of his allegations, they agreed with one. It would be a new trial. So, to get us on the right page, they didn’t agree that an all-white jury was the issue, but they did agree to a new trial.
Once again, he was indicted, and a jury was selected from thirty white folks… some wearing confederate uniforms to court… okay no they weren’t. Davenport asserted that his client would be unable to receive an impartial trial by any jury selected under the West Virginia law, which law was “unconstitutional, null and void.” He asked that the case be removed to a federal court, under a section of the Civil Rights Act of 1875. Now even though this was in 1872, West Virginia law and Virginia law did not recognize the marriage between slaves. This law hadn’t changed and the Strauder’s were married when they were slaves. His address to the court was “Your petitioner avers that under the laws of Virginia and West Virginia the relation of husband and wife was not recognized between slaves, and that an impression is general in this County and the adjacent ones, that colored men are not entitled to the same protection in their marital relations as white men.”
That is what the appeals court sent the case back to the lower court for. Black slave marriages were not recognized by law. That was the constitutional amendment that was being violated. “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.” 
Now Davenport also knew that having all white juries was also prejudicial, but he didn’t say anything about that because he didn’t want to be a misunderstanding when it was time to ride back home in the dark by himself. He only asked that a new panel and jury be chosen by a method that did not exclude blacks and that the case be transferred to a federal court.
Judge: Boy If I were you… I would get some life insurance… It gets mighty dark around these parts at night…
Both motions were denied.

Naw Nigra

So, the second trial started. Strauder pleaded “not guilty as charged.” Now there is a difference between pleading not guilty and not guilty as charged. They charged him with first degree murder, which was an azz whopping and hanging offence… His defense was that it was not first degree murder, but a lesser crime. Davenport brought witnesses to the stand testifying how loving the Strauder’s were. That in the heat of the moment after being confronted with his wife infidelity, he lost his dome and cracked her upside the head with a hatchet.
The prosecution’s case won out though. He put witnesses on the stand that testified they saw Strauder attack Annie more than once. They testified about the police intervening between them after a violent confrontation. He also said that it was first degree because the defend had gone to bed that night after the argument and killed her the next morning.
At four o’clock on November 4, 1874, the jury began deliberation. The newspapers reported that the townspeople hung around the courthouse, “more interested in the jury than in Taylor Strauder.” At ten p.m. the jury filed back into the courtroom and announced that they had not yet been able to achieve a verdict. When researching this and I saw that they did not reach a verdict, I’m like this is going to be a hung jury… over a black man in 1874? My instincts won out, they came back the next day and by noon was ready to string a nigra up. There were three ballots:
1st Ballot: 9 to hang, 3 for life imprisonment.
2nd Ballot: 11 to hang, 1 for life imprisonment .
3rd Ballot: 12 to hang… and cut them off too… okay…. they didn’t say cut them off too…
The judge decreed that Strauder should be “hung by the neck until dead.” He was to be hung three months from that day.

The Upper Room

So, Davenport must have had a death wish. He went back to the court of appeals with eleven new motions. Seventeen days before Strauder was to report to the Upper Room, the court issued a stay. The Register newspaper went crazy! They had banked on telling the story of how hundreds would have gathered to see the nigra smoked and hanged. Their byline after hearing the guilty verdict was:
“Strauder would indeed be executed, that no maneuver would “prevent Strauder from soon making his exit from the vale of tears, with a rope around his neck.”
Now with this stay, they were writing…
“And we won’t have a hanging this month. What a disappointment to a great many people.”
“Young men who bet on Strader leaving us on the 26th of March have lost their money.” 
The Gazette wrote: “The Wheeling hanging has been postponed. They are ‘going to give the old man another chance.’ It was only a woman he killed anyhow.” 
On the day that was scheduled for the neck stretching, the Register wrote” This was the day for the execution of Taylor Strauder, the wife murderer, but through law’s quibbles and delays, the ends of justice are defeated.”
Back in the day, a hanging was like a Taylor Swift concert and if it was a black being hung, there was the possibility of free souvenirs… 
Anyway, even after of all that the appeals court let stand Strauder’s conviction.” He was to be hung.. for real this time…

On The White Mans Shoulders

Davenport knew he had reached the end of the rope this time… pun intended. He took his case to the Supremes of the United States! It took four years for the case to be heard. It took such a long time because the court waited for several cases to come before it concerning black folks so they could cure all of the racist bullshat at one time instead of case by case.
So, Davenport and his boy Dovener submitted their briefs to the court. Now President Hayes was also interested in this 14th Amendment case, and he also sent his Attorney General to submit a brief on Strauder’s behalf. West Virgina was represented by James W. Green, a Virginia lawyer and another man who was not mentioned. Now history says the two lawyers representing West Virginia were both Democrats and former Confederate officers, while the lawyers representing Strauder were both Republicans and former Union officers. Now the two Union officers and Republicans were Dovener and the Haye’s Attorney General Devens. Davenport, Strauder’s main lawyer was a Democrat, who shunned the south… interesting.
Devens, Haye’s Attorney General, had a strong interest in the civil rights of blacks. He had been feeling some kind of way because as a young United States Marshal for Massachusetts he had been forced to return a runaway slave named Sims into slavery. They whipped that nigras azz right in front of him.
Bounty: Hey Devens!! You want some of this!!! “WHIPPA CRACK!! WHIPPA CRACK!! WHIPPA CRACK!!”
Devens wrestled with guilt over this action, and four years after having sent Sims back into slavery he attempted unsuccessfully to purchase his freedom. Fortunately, Sim was freed by an advancing Union Army. Devens gave him financial assistance, and later employed him in the Attorney General’s office, probably as a janitor… but he still gets a little props from me.
Now Deven’s was a smart dude. He came out in front of the SCOTUS talking in Latin and quoting the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta is the basis of our Constitution. Anyway, his argument was that while the 14th amendment doesn’t specifically mention Negroes, it was passed solely for their benefit and would probably never have any other applications. While he didn’t mention that he thought blacks should serve on juries based on the constitution, his argument implied it. West Virgina said that the state law preventing blacks on juries was analogous to the state law prohibition of women on juries. This is where Devens knock him the faque out when he said… “Women don’t have a constitutional amendment…”
It didn’t end it there though. Virigina then jumped to the 6th Amendment. “The accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed.” Then he asked has not this defendant been given his rights according to our Constitution? Simply being a Negro does not make out his case. Jury duty is not a privilege, but an “onerous service” laid on the white man’s shoulders. 
Clerk: Your honor… a rider in a hood has just deposited the body of a black man on the steps with a rope around his neck… should I put him with the other ones…

Oh Massa

Four months after the oral arguments the SCOTUS came back with a landmark ruling. On a seven-to-two vote, the court ruled in favor of Taylor Strauder, declaring that the West Virginia jury requirements were unconstitutional and that the “removal clause” of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was constitutional. If West Virginia chose to pursue the case, it would presumably be removed to a federal court for trial. 
So, the removal clause of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 said:
“That no citizen possessing all other qualifications which are or may be prescribed by law shall be disqualified for service as grand or petit juror in any court of the United States, or of any State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude; and any officer or other person charged with any duty in the selection or summoning of jurors who shall exclude or fail to summon any citizen for the cause aforesaid shall, on conviction thereof, be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and be fined not more than five thousand dollars.”
On May 2, 1881, after nine years of incarceration Strauder was finally freed. Freed on the basis that his original indictment had been unconstitutional. Strauder eventually returned back to his hometown. Having spent the last nine years of his life in prison, he was applauded for learning to read and write while incarcerated and having gained the respect of the other prisoners. Over the course of those years in prison his health had been failing, his personal lawyer had died, and Fannie the 14-year-old witness to the crime had married and moved away.
Though a confessed murderer, few citizens who had read accounts of his years of prison life objected to his being freed. Many people, said the Register, “are of the opinion that he has already been sufficiently punished.” 

The End Of The Beginning…

Well that the story of Taylor Strauder. There are no death records of a Taylor Strauder in Ohio County where he lived, and he dropped out of history around 1881. They say somebody found a hatchet and his shoe near a house he used to live in, along with a log that was cut in half nearby, but ain’t nobody talking…. Fannie said she was out of town…
So, the implication of the case meant that any state which had laws on the books barring blacks and women from being on a jury was unconstitutional. In practical terms it didn’t mean dilly squat. State prosecutors found ways around admitting blacks on juries. One of the most effective ways of keeping blacks off the juries was hanging a couple of mofo’s in front of the courthouse… okay I’m kidding, but seriously, they started taking jurors from guess what? Thats right the voter rolls. Prevent blacks from voting and get a two for one… no representation in government and no representation in court.
Still the legacy of Strauder v. West Virgina lives on in the annals of African American history and was a steppingstone in our fight for equality and justice under the law.

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