1919: Frank Ezell and Brown Ezell, “Atticus Finch” clients

ExecutedToday.com ^ | December 19, 2016 | Headsman

[CheshireTheCat]

From the Monroeville (Ala.) Monroe Journal reported on Christmas Day 1925:

For the second time within a period of forty years, Monroe County has had a legal execution for the commission of crime. Frank Ezell and Brown Ezell, father and son, on Friday, December 19, expiated on the gallows under the sentence of the court the murder of Mr. William H. Northrup.

Morbid curiosity drew a large crowd to town on the fateful day, but few were admitted within the prison walls, while those outside could catch but an occasional word that fell from the lips of the accused men and realize only in imagination the gruesome task that fell to the lot of Sheriff Russell and his assistants.

Both negroes made statements on the gallows, the older man protesting his innocence of any complicity in the crime. The younger made full confession, asserting that he alone was responsible and that his punishment was just. The Journal spares its readers the frightful details of the execution. Let us hope that there may never again be occasion for a similar sentence of law.

This story arrives to us via Kerry Madden’s Harper Lee: Up Close, a biography of the reclusive author of To Kill a Mockingbird … and it is noteworthy in that context because Frank Ezell and Brown Ezell, father and son, were defended in this case by 29-year-old lawyer A.C. Lee: Harper Lee‘s father....

[algore]

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Thanks for posting this most interesting history about the injustice to the senior Mr. Ezell and the fact that the cast was the first and last criminal case tried by Harper Lee’s father.

[If You Want It Fixed - Fix It]

Still happens today. Inexperienced lawyer defends a guy “everybody” knows is guilty.

[FamiliarFace]

TKAM is one of my very favorite movies of all time. I loved Gregory Peck playing Atticus Finch. There’s also something about Scout that I very much relate to. I think in some ways I used to look like her when I was that age, and I have a brother that was just a little bit older than me. I adored him as a kid (still do!) and followed him EVERYWHERE. I got into mischief with him whenever he allowed me to tag along. What I call “Old Florida” was very much like where those kids lived. And I loved being barefoot more than anything. Looking back on that now, my shoes probably didn’t fit very well (I got blisters a lot when I wore them).

[Repeal The 17th]

Monroeville is known as the hometown of two prominent writers,
Truman Capote and Harper Lee,
who were childhood friends in the 1930s.