Jack Johnson Will He Be Pardoned?

I don't really see the point. Johnson died 70 years ago. His conviction was over 100 years ago. A pardon does him no good. Very few of the general public today even know who he was. If it happens it will only be for current political purposes, an opportunity for someone to make political capital out of something they had nothing to do with anyway.

 

A criminal charge is a very specific thing.

It doesn’t matter what bad things the somebody has done previously, or has been accused of doing.

The only thing that matters in court is whether the charge in question, was proved beyond reasonable doubt (not balance of probability).

Before the charges were even brought to bear, the police should have considered whether it was in the public interest to proceed.

It should have been pretty clear from the circumstances of the arrest , that it was not.

Virtually any sporting figure of the period could have been prosecuted on that basis, had the authorities set out to do it.

Pardon

 

If you don’t see the point, then do a search on “respectful debates between McVea and Mendoza”!

 

Everything you ever needed to know about Johnson's criminal trial, the facts that led up to it, the testimony and evidence allowed, the law, the judge's instructions to the jury, the prosecutor's post-trial comments, and the ruling of the appellate court is all in my book, In the Ring With Jack Johnson - Part II: The Reign. It is the most thorough discussion of the Mann Act trial and issues ever. I obtained the entire trial transcript.

 

The new Sullivan book should be published sometime in March.

 

Under the letter of the law and the spirit under which it was written Johnson was guilty. Its been repeated and repeated that that the law was created to get johnson, that it was a jim crow law, that johnson was unfairly prosecuted and even that he was the only person ever prosecuted by this law. None of the above is even close to true. In fact he was more guilty than several others prosecuted under the Mann act. If Johnson is pardoned then everyone else convicted of it should be pardoned as well. Personally i think our legislators have better things to do than waste their time which is funded by our money by righting a supposed wrong of an over 100 yr old case 70 years after johnsons death. Exactly what does it accomplish which is totally besides the point of whether or not this guy even deserves it.

 

I could give about as much a **** if Johnson is pardoned as Jack himself could. It's political window dressing. How about hanging the ****suckers who allowed poisoned water to flow in Flint, Michigan first. That would make me clap my hands.

 

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I'm on the fence about this. He was prosecuted for supposedly taking some across state lines for the purpose of prostitution. Is he guilty. It depends. I think a lot of girls he hung around with were prostitutes but l don't think he profited by it, more likely he subsized it. But to be honest l've never researched the Statute regarding this offense. As to the wisdom of the law itself it's a bit like questioning prohibition today. In hindsite it's a stupid law but it was the law at the time. Was it used for political purposes? Probably. So a pardon wouldn't bother me but l'm watching death stories on CNN as l write this and there's a lot more injustices of a serious nature that go as far as executing innocent people that l think warrant investigation and pardons.

 

Not really arguing that an injustice was committed it's just that in the scheme of things you don't have to go back 70+ years to find injustice it's happening today and in some cases the penalties are far worse. There are certainly innocent people on death row for example.

 

Two white men, Farley Drew Caminetti and Maury Diggs, were both prosecuted under the Mann Act at the same time Johnson was, and both served prison sentences. They'd done little more than take their mistresses away for the weekend. Luis Firpo, Frank Lloyd Wright and Charlie Chaplin amongst others also fell foul of it.

 

Your inference was that only Johnson was targeted. He wasn't. Two obscure white guys whom the US Government had no reason to target who were also prosecuted. Do you think they were the only two?

https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=RFoEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3729,5188981&hl=en

https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=Q4MFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4566,3196011&hl=en

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2249&dat=19150224&id=yw0nAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hgMGAAAAIBAJ&pg=5840,4169138&hl=en

https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=-VMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1887,5126430&hl=en

And I'm sure there were many more.