"The Last Lynching in America"
NewsToBeRead
James "Tiger" Knowles, Jr.
"The Last Lynching in America"
One of the most heinous racial crimes that ever took place in the United
States occurred on October 17, 1981. That week, a jury had been struggling
to reach a verdict in the case of a black man accused of murdering a white
policeman. The killing had occurred in Birmingham, Alabama, but the trial
had been moved to Mobile, Alabama. To Francis Hays - the second-highest
Klan official in Alabama - and his fellow members of Unit 900 of the United
Klans, the presence of blacks on the jury meant that a guilty man would go
free. According to Klansmen who attended the unit's weekly meeting, Hays
had preached that Wednesday, saying, ''If a black man can get away with
killing a white man, we ought to be able to get away with killing a black
man.''
A young black male (Michael Donald) was abducted in downtown Mobile, Alabama
and taken to a site across Mobile Bay where he was beaten and murdered. The
murder was the revenge for the mistrial of a black man accused of killing a
white Birmingham, Alabama police officer. Two Ku Klux Klan members, Francis
Hays and James "Tiger" Knowles, were apprehended and charged with the
murder. A third individual, Benjamin Cox, was also charged as an
accomplice. The three were tried and convicted and Hays was ultimately
executed at Holman Prison in 2000; Knowles is serving a life sentence and
the third co-defendant (Cox) is serving a 99 year prison sentence.
On that Friday night, after the jurors announced they couldn't reach a
verdict, the Klansmen got together in a house Bennie Hays owned on Herndon
Avenue. According to later testimony from James (Tiger) Knowles, then 17
years old, Tiger produced a borrowed pistol. Henry Francis Hays, Bennie's
26-year-old son, took out a rope. Then the two got in Henry's car and went
hunting for a black man.
Michael Donald was alone, walking home, when Knowles and Hays spotted him.
They pulled over, asked him for directions to a night club, then pointed the
gun at him and ordered him to get in. They drove to the next county. When
they stopped, Michael begged them not to kill him, then tried to escape.
Henry Hays and Knowles chased him, caught him, hit him with a tree limb more
than a hundred times, and, when he was no longer moving, wrapped the rope
around his neck. Henry Hays shoved his boot in Michael's face and pulled on
the rope. For good measure, they cut his throat.
It is ironic to note, however, that the three defendants were successful in
having evidence tying them to the crime scene completely discredited in
court. Statistical evidence offered by the prosecution's witness (a
chemist) directed toward showing similarities in soil samples found on the
victim's clothing, the defendant's shoes, and the crime scene was totally
invalidated because inappropriate (and incorrect) statistical tests were
used. The prosecution's witness was also shown to have little knowledge of
both soil mineralogy and chemical variability associated with soils. While
excellent evidence could have been offered by the prosecution had they
chosen to use either the heavy mineral and/or clay mineral "fingerprint" of
the soils, the prosecution instead attempted to show "similarities" in the
chemistry of the soils. The defense witness was able to identify numerous
mistakes made in interpreting the evidence and to invalidate the entire
testimony offered by the prosecution's witness.
Fortunately, the adage "there is no honor among thieves" was evidenced and
two of the co-defendants, to avoid a possible death sentence, admitted their
guilt and testified that Hays was the chief conspirator. Following
completion of the trial, the expert witness for the defense was contacted by
the district attorney and asked whether more appropriate tests could have
been offered (so as to avoid possible errors in the future). He was able to
take solace by learning that both geological and statistical evidence had
been there all along. It simply had not been reviewed by someone who
possessed the proper expertise to do so.
While the felony to which Knowles confessed was a federal crime, the ensuing
murder charge against Hays was prosecuted as a state crime. He pleaded
innocent. During Hays' trial, Knowles testified that the killing was planned
to avenge a white police officer killed after a Birmingham bank robbery.
Knowles and Hays assumed that a predominantly black jury would not convict a
black defendant in the Birmingham case. With the approval and assistance of
Hays' father Bennie, Frank Cox, Thaddeus Betancourt, and Teddy Kyzar - all
members of the United Klans of America - Knowles and Hays planned to kill
a randomly selected black person and burn a cross at the Mobile County
Courthouse in a symbolic act of Klan strength. To establish alibis, the
group threw a party the night the Birmingham case went to the jury. When
news of a hung jury was announced on television, Knowles and Hayes slipped
away and abducted Donald, whom they found walking alone on a dark street.
In June of 1983, Knowles confessed to F.B.I. agent Bodman. After pleading
guilty to violating Michael Donald's civil rights, he was placed in the
Federal witness protection program - a fairly standard accommodation for
Klan informers - and sentenced to life in prison. In December, when Henry
Hays was tried for capital murder, Knowles appeared as a prosecution
witness. Henry Hays was convicted of murder on December 10, 1983, and
sentenced by the jury to life imprisonment without parole. Hays conviction
was largely due to the strength of the testimony by Knowles.
A jury of 11 whites and one black found Hays guilty and sentenced him to
life in prison. That didn't seem sufficient punishment to Judge Braxton
Kittrell Jr., who rejected the sentence in February 1984 and directed that
Henry Hays be electrocuted. In 1986, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals
set aside the death sentence. Later that year, however, the Alabama Supreme
Court upheld Judge Kittrell's decision. ''We cannot imagine,'' the justices
wrote, ''a case in which the death penalty is more justified.''
Knowles was sentenced to 10 years to life imprisonment for his part in the
killing.
Despite the sentences meted out to the killers, no charges stood against the
klansmen who had helped them. The fact that all the plotters were UKA
members seemed a legal opportunity to Morris Dees, director of the Southern
Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Dees convinced Beulah Mae Donald, Michael's
mother, that a civil suit against the UKA would uncover the entire truth
about her son's murder. Donald agreed to sue the corporate UKA, its leader
"Imperial Wizard" Robert Shelton, and the Mobile Klansmen for $10 million in
damages.
The suit against the UKA was based on "agency theory," which holds that
corporations are responsible for the deeds of employees acting according to
the corporation's principles. Donald's attorneys attempted to prove that
her son's death was not only the result of a conspiracy between the Mobile
Klansmen, but also of their acting upon the UKA's violent policies through a
semi-military chain of command.
When the Donald suit went to court on February 9, 1987, all of the
defendants except Robert Shelton defended themselves. John Mays, the
Imperial Wizard's lawyer, tried to distance Shelton and his organization
from the Mobile Klansmen. Mays deplored Donald's murder as an "atrocity" and
told the jury that there was no evidence whatsoever of his client or any
other national officer of the UKA directly participating in the crime.
Dees next concentrated on proving that violence was essential to the
corporate philosophy of the UKA. He relied heavily on a deposition by Gary
Thomas Rowe, a controversial government informer who had been present during
the 1965 murder of civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo. As well as detailing
UKA sanctions of the Liuzzo killing and describing her murder on a
Mississippi highway, Rowe's deposition illuminated Shelton's conspiracy with
Birmingham police in 1961 attacks on Freedom Riders and the 1963 bombing of
Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist church. Rowe's damaging testimony
went uncontested by Mays - although invited, Shelton's attorney had not
attended the taking of Rowe's deposition. Consequently, it was read into
the trial record unchallenged.
To buttress Rowe's claims that the Klan was institutionally violent, Dees
called Randy Ward, a former UKA member living in the federal witness
protection program. Ward detailed his own violent past and recalled Shelton
inspiring Klansmen with his exploits during attacks on civil rights
volunteers in the 1960s. Ward also recalled a telephone conversation with
Shelton, during which the Imperial Wizard told Ward that Klansmen implicated
in shooting incidents would receive legal and financial aid.
At the end of the trial, the defendants offered no witnesses. In contrast
to the lack of contrition among the other defendants, Knowles tearfully
asked the jurors to return a guilty verdict and sought Mrs. Donald's
forgiveness. "Son," she replied, "I forgave you a long time ago."
The six members of the all-white jury ruled in favor of Donald, awarding her
damages of $7 million. The decision effectively bankrupted the UKA, which
mailed the deeds and keys to its property to Donald. Evidence unearthed
during the trial resulted in murder charges against Frank Cox and Bennie
Hays. Cox was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1989.
Bennie Hays suffered a heart attack during his trial and died before he
could be retried. Henry Hays continued to protest his innocence until his
execution on June 6, 1997. Most significantly, the SPLC led by Morris Dees
pursued civil suits in future murder and assault cases, dismantling hate
groups through their bank accounts.