Legal History Commons^™

The Trials Of The Scottsboro Boys, Douglas O. Linder

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No crime in American history - let alone a crime that never occurred - produced as many trials, convictions, reversals, and retrials as did an alleged gang rape of two white girls by nine black teenagers on a Southern Railroad freight run on March 25, 1931. Over the course of the two decades that followed, the struggle for justice of the Scottsboro Boys, as the black teens were called, made celebrities out of anonymities, launched and ended careers, wasted lives, produced heroes, opened southern juries to blacks, exacerbated sectional strife, and divided America's political left.

The Witchcraft Trials In Salem: A Commentary, Douglas O. Linder

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From June through September of 1692, nineteen men and women, all having been convicted of witchcraft, were carted to Gallows Hill, a barren slope near Salem Village, for hanging. Another man of over eighty years was pressed to death under heavy stones for refusing to submit to a trial on witchcraft charges. Hundreds of others faced accusations of witchcraft. Dozens languished in jail for months without trials. Then, almost as soon as it had begun, the hysteria that swept through Puritan Massachusetts ended. Why did this travesty of justice occur? Why did it occur in Salem? Nothing about this tragedy …

The Trial Of John W. Hinckley, Jr., Douglas O. Linder

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The verdict of not guilty for reason of insanity in the 1982 trial of John Hinckley, Jr. for his attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan stunned and outraged many Americans. An ABC News poll taken the day after the verdict showed 83% of those polled thought justice was not done in the Hinckley case. Some people - without much evidence - attributed the verdict to an anti-Reagan bias on the part the Washington, D. C. jury of eleven blacks and one white. Many more people, however, blamed a legal system that they claimed made it too easy for juries to …

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Trial, Douglas O. Linder

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It was a warm spring Saturday in New York City, March 25, 1911. On the top three floors of the ten-story Asch Building just off of Washington Square, employees of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory began putting away their work as the 4:45 p.m. quitting time approached. Most of the several hundred Triangle Shirtwaist employees were teenage girls. Most were recent immigrants. Many spoke only a little English. Just then somebody on the eighth floor shouted, Fire! Flames leapt from discarded rags between the first and second rows of cutting tables in the hundred-foot-by-hundred-foot floor. Triangle employee William Bernstein grabbed pails …

The Treason Trial Of Aaron Burr, Douglas O. Linder

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The high-stakes treason trial of Aaron Burr came at an unstable time, both in Europe and in America. The American and French revolutions worried traditional European powers, Great Britain and Spain, who were determined to keep the radical new doctrine from undermining the power of their royalty. Meanwhile, Napoleon's empire-building produced sustained military conflict on the Continent. The United States seemed on the verge of a war with Spain, even as the Administration struggled to preserve neutrality. Americans west of the Alleghenies rejoiced in President Jefferson's acquisition of the Louisiana Territory, but boundary disputes and Spanish prohibitions on Louisiana residents' …

The Trial Of Sir Thomas More: An Account, Douglas O. Linder

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There is much to learn from the story of how the head of one of the most revered men in England, Sir Thomas More, ended up on the chopping block on London's Tower Hill in 1535. Few people in history have faced their trials and deaths as squarely, calmly, and with as much integrity as did More. More's road from his post as Lord Chancellor of England to the Tower of London owes its course to a Bible passage, a marriage of a long-dead prince, and the consuming desire of lustful and vain-glorious King Henry VIII to marry Anne Boleyn. …

Harry Potter And The Law, Timothy S. Hall, Jeffrey E. Thomas, Danaya C. Wright, James Charles Smith, Aaron Schwabach, Joel Fishman, Daniel Austin Green, Andrew P. Morriss, Benjamin H. Barton

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The magnitude of the Harry Potter phenomenon alone would make it worthy of consideration; the fact that it is children's literature, and thus may play a significant part in forming a future generation's attitudes toward law and legal institutions, makes it even more so. The various contributions to this article explore various aspects of law and culture as presented in or viewed through the Harry Potter stories. The contributions of James Charles Smith and Danaya Wright address the depiction of families in the narratives and the limited role and development of family law. Benjamin H. Barton's contribution considers the failings …

From Petticoats To Briefs: History Of Women At The University Of Missouri-Kansas City School Of Law, Robert C. Downs, Brooke Grant, Elizabeth Sterling

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The story of women in American society has largely been defined and recorded by men and the institutions that men have dominated for most of the past two hundred-odd years. Women have been denied access to education, employment, political power and other benefits of social intercourse by exclusion, intimidation, ridicule and patronization. The experience of women in law school is one part of that experience. Law school is an arduous undertaking whether one is male or female. Gaining admission to modern law schools requires talent and demonstrated academic performance in a competitive environment. But in the nineteenth century, the foremost …

One Small Step For Women: Female-Friendly Provisions In The Rome Statute Of The International Criminal Court, Rana R. Lehr-Lehnardt

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No abstract provided.

The Trial Of Socrates, Douglas O. Linder

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The trial and execution of Socrates in Athens in 399 B.C.E. puzzles historians. Why, in a society enjoying more freedom and democracy than any the world had ever seen, would a seventy-year-old philosopher be put to death for what he was teaching? The puzzle is all the greater because Socrates had taught - without molestation - all of his adult life. What could Socrates have said or done than prompted a jury of 500 Athenians to send him to his death just a few years before he would have died naturally? Finding an answer to the mystery of the trial …

Bending Toward Justice: John Doar And The Mississippi Burning Trial, Douglas O. Linder

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All other civil rights groups in 1964 considered Mississippi - the most impenetrable state in the union - hopeless. The decision of Bob Moses of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to shake up the Magnolia State by sending six hundred young volunteers into every corner of the state to register new black voters brimmed with danger. Moses explained to a first gathering of student volunteers, When you're not in Mississippi, it's not real. And when you're there, the rest of the world isn't real. In the early morning hours of June 20, Mickey Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney …

The Trial Of Galileo, Douglas O. Linder

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Galileo Galilei was born in 1564 - the same year that Shakespeare was born and Michelangelo died. From an early age, Galileo showed his scientific skills. At age nineteen, he discovered the isochronism of the pendulum. By age twenty-two, he had invented the hydrostatic balance. By age twenty-five, Galileo assumed his first lectureship, at the University of Pisa. Within a few more years, Galileo earned a reputation throughout Europe as a scientist and superb lecturer. Eventually, he would be recognized as the father of experimental physics. Galileo's motto might have been follow knowledge wherever it leads us. In the 1633 …

The Trial Of Jesus: An Account, Douglas O. Linder

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Providing an account of the trial of Jesus presents challenges unlike that for any of the other trials on the Famous Trials Website. First, there is the challenge of determining what actually happened nearly 2,000 years ago before the Sanhedrin and the Roman prefect of Judea, Pontius Pilate. The task is daunting because almost our entire understanding of events comes from five divergent accounts, each of which was written by a Christian (who did not witness the final days of Jesus directly) for a distinct audience from fifteen (at least) to seventy years after the trial. Second, there is the …

The Trial Of John Peter Zenger: An Account, Douglas O. Linder

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No country values free expression more highly than does the United States, and no case in American history stands as a greater landmark on the road to protection for freedom of the press than the trial of a German immigrant printer named John Peter Zenger. On August 5, 1735, twelve New York jurors, inspired by the eloquence of the best lawyer of the period, Andrew Hamilton, ignored the instructions of the Governor's hand-picked judges and returned a verdict of Not Guilty on the charge of publishing seditious libels. The Zenger trial is a remarkable story of a divided Colony, the …

My Lai: An American Tragedy, William G. Eckhardt

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No abstract provided.

Stamped With Glory: Lewis Tappan And The Africans Of The Amistad, Douglas O. Linder

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Abolitionism came relatively late to Lewis Tappan. Devotional, benevolent and hardworking are all words that describe Tappan in his twenties and thirties. Social reformer he was not. In 1818, Tappan abandoned the Calvinism of his mother for Unitarianism, then fashionable for a socially ambitious merchant. For the next eight years, Tappan enjoyed the typical life of an upper-middle-class New England merchant. He took his new faith seriously, however, editing a Unitarian journal, and becoming the first treasurer of the American Unitarian Association. In the mid-1820's, America experienced The Great Second Awakening, a widespread revival of religion and religious debate and …

Without Fear Or Favor: Judge James Edwin Horton And The Trial Of The Scottsboro Boys, Douglas O. Linder

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No abstract provided.

Before Brown: Charles H. Houston And The Gaines Case, Douglas O. Linder

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In 1895 in Plessy v. Ferguson the Supreme Court announced the legal principle, separate but equal, that would guide American race relations for over half a century. For Charles Houston, the training of black lawyers was a key to mounting an attack on segregation. While at Harvard, Houston wrote that there must be Negro lawyers in every community and that the great majority of these lawyers must come from Negro schools. It was, he concluded, in the best interests of the United States - to provide the best teachers possible at law schools where Negroes might be trained. After graduating …

Anasazi Jurisprudence, John W. Ragsdale Jr

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No abstract provided.

Nuremberg - Fifty Years: Accountability And Responsibility, William G. Eckhardt

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No abstract provided.

The First 100 Years: Umkc School Of Law: An Abridged History, Robert C. Downs

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This article provides a historical account of the first century of the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) School of Law, highlighting its founding, evolution, and key milestones. Established in 1895 as the Kansas City School of Law, the institution grew from a small private legal training center into a fully integrated part of the University of Missouri system. The history details the school’s transformation through significant events such as its merger with the University of Kansas City in 1938 and its incorporation into the University of Missouri in 1963. The narrative also explores the changing demographics of the student body, …

The Rise And Fall Of The Chacoan State, John W. Ragsdale Jr

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No abstract provided.

Law And Economics: Nexus Of Science And Belief, Robert C. Downs

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No abstract provided.

An Authentic Life In The Law: A Tribute To James K. Logan, Irma S. Russell

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UMKC School of Law Professor Irma S. Russell reflects on the professional life and legacy of Judge James K. Logan, exploring his career as a model of integrity, intellect, and dedication to justice. Through the lens of her experiences as his former law clerk, Russell examines broader questions about what constitutes a meaningful and ethical life in the legal profession. Blending biography, personal reflection, and professional critique, Russell argues that authenticity in law arises from commitment to community, ethical responsibility, and the pursuit of the common good.

An Introduction To The Symposium, William G. Eckhardt

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Professor William Eckhardt introduces the ideas which initiated planning for and later emanated from UMKC School of Law Symposium “Don't Ask, Don't Tell-Implementation and Litigation.” As the title suggests, the Symposium examined the complex and important issues surrounding the policy of the United States toward gays and lesbians in the Armed Forces. This community­wide event was centered in the UMKC Law School Courtroom on the evening of April 11, 1995.

The idea for this Symposium was conceived by Professor Samuel A. Marcosson, a senior attorney in the Office of General Counsel of the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It was …

The Dispossession Of The Kansas Shawnee, John W. Ragsdale Jr

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No abstract provided.

The Institutions, Laws And Values Of The Hopi Indians: A Stable State Society, John W. Ragsdale Jr

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The Hopi Indians of northeastern Arizona have existed as a stable or steady state society for a thousand years or more, and, even though they have felt the impact of white growth society in this century, they have maintained a greater cultural integrity than any other native people in the United States. This Article examines traditional Hopi values and institutions, especially their law. Hopi thinking and social organization were shaped by a profound reverence for their environment and an equally profound awareness of the constraints it imposed. With its growing sense of a need for balance with the environment, modern …

The Two Hundredth Reunion Of Delegates To The Constitutional Convention (Or, All Things Considered, We'd Really Rather Be In Philadelphia), Douglas O. Linder

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No abstract provided.

Taxation Of Qualified Plan Distributions: History And Analysis, Christopher R. Hoyt

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No abstract provided.

The Political And Administrative History Of The U.S. Court Of Appeals For The Tenth Circuit, Arthur J. Stanley, Irma S. Russell

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A history of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, which was created by dividing the Eighth Circuit, the only time geographical boundaries had been altered since the present federal circuit court system was instituted in 1891.