system. The Mooney-Billings case (People v. Billings) is another example. In this instance, two men were murdered during a payroll robbery, and two Italian immigrants were arrested and eventually executed. They were anarchists, but U.S. citizens. Off the bench, the judge of their case, Judge Thayer remarked, "Did you see what I did with those anarchist bastards the other day? I guess that will hold them for a while" (Radelet, 98). The lives of these two Italian immigrants were unjustly taken due to a biased judge. And that is supposed to be justice? Though there is unfortunately a vast array of cases that portray the unfair influence of politics, I do feel it is necessary to touch on one more aspect of community passion and the vulnerability of defendants. The state-sanctioned murders that occurred due to racial tension between the whites and African Americans are numerous and horrendous. What is the most disturbing of these cases are those in which whites are released for crimes while African American's are routinely executed for similar crimes. The imposition of the death penalty and the harsh punishment is particularly likely when the latter commits a crime against the former. In the Rosewood Massacre of 1923, over 150 African Americans were murdered, and not one of the white rioters was arrested. In the Shepard, Irvin and Charles v. State in 1949, Charlie Greenlee was arrested outside of a gas station for carrying a gun. However after being taken into the station, the police then notified him that he was wanted for assault, kidnap and rape of a white couple. The only link that Greenlee had to the murder was that he grew up in the town of the murder, and that he was an African American. Greenlee's friend, Ernest Thomas, who was also African American, was seen sleeping in the woods, and was murdered by white rioters who thought that he was one of the culprits. Both of these men were innocent. None of these rioters were...
