Arkansas records four lynchings in 1899. In that year the Natural State carried out just one legal execution (the state for contrast had executed five persons in 1898 and would not execute anyone in 1900). This instance involved the typical Jim Crow era exercise of making non-homicidal rape a capital crime, but only so far as it applied to an assault committed by a black male on a white female. On March 17, an aged German woman named Hulda Meier, a resident of Crawford County, reported that a black man named John Maxey (age not apparently known) raped her. There was talk of a lynching but the locals for once seemed content to let the justice system handle the matter.Maxey was indicted on April 3 and his trial began on the 5th. The Arkansas Democrat reported that the defense brought in witnesses to prove that Ms. Meiers was of "low character" and several blacks who provided an alibi for Maxey's whereabouts when the rape took place. A 13 year old black boy named Tommie Downs claimed Maxey offered him money to take Meier up a mountain and claim to be helping her find a place to stay for the night; several witnesses reported seeing Downs with her.
After a four day trial, the all white male jury found Maxey guilty of first degree rape and he was sentenced to be executed May 19. The case was appealed to the state supreme court, which ultimately upheld the verdict. Maxey's execution date was moved to August 4. Some people wrote the governor to request clemency for Maxey; they claimed Hulda Meier was mentally unstable and had a history of false rape accusations; after Maxey went on trial she claimed a white man attacked her. Governor Daniel Jones refused clemency on the grounds that Maxey had always been "a vicious, worthless Negro. If he had a previous good character it would have gone a long way in supporting the claim made by his attorneys."Maxey mounted the gallows on August 4 after a last prayer and a solemn curse on the people of Van Buren. He maintained his innocence to the end.
>>18252689>>18252688t. LBJfag
