The Depression-era murder trial of George Crawford in Northern Virginia helped end the exclusion of African Americans from juries. Nearly forgotten today, the murders, ensuing manhunt, extradition battle and sensational trial enthralled the nation. Before it was over, the U.S. House of Representatives threatened to impeach a federal judge, the age-old states rights debate was renewed, and a rift nearly split the fledgling NAACP. In the end, the story's hero--Howard University Law School dean Charles Hamilton Houston--was the subject of public ridicule from critics who had little understanding of the inner workings of the case. This book puts the Crawford murder trial in its fullest context, side by side with relevant events of the time.

The Depression-era murder trial of George Crawford in Northern Virginia helped end the exclusion of African Americans from juries. Nearly forgotten today, the murders, ensuing manhunt, extradition battle and sensational trial enthralled the nation. Before it was over, the U.S. House of Representatives threatened to impeach a federal judge, the age-old states rights debate was renewed, and a rift nearly split the fledgling NAACP. In the end, the story's hero--Howard University Law School dean Charles Hamilton Houston--was the subject of public ridicule from critics who had little understanding of the inner workings of the case. This book puts the Crawford murder trial in its fullest context, side by side with relevant events of the time.

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""A good story, well told, of a sliver of life in Richmond, a small, elite-driven capital city in the young nation's most influential state."" Publishers Weekly George Wythe clung to the mahogany banister as he inched down the staircase of his comfortable Richmond, Virginia, home. Doubled over in agony, he stumbled to the kitchen in search of help. There he found his maid, Lydia Broadnax, and his young protege, Michael Brown, who were also writhing in distress. Hours later, when help arrived, Wythe was quick to tell anyone who would listen, ""I am murdered."" Over the next two weeks, as Wythe suffered a long and painful death, insults would be added to his mortal injury. I Am Murdered tells the bizarre true story of Wythe's death and the subsequent trial of his grandnephew and namesake, George Wythe Sweeney, for the crimeunquestionably the most sensational and talked-about court case of the era. Hinging on hit-and-miss forensics, the unreliability of medical autopsies, the prevalence of poisoning, race relations, slavery, and the law, Sweeney's trial serves as a window into early nineteenth- century America. Its particular focus is on Richmond, part elegant state capital and part chaotic boomtown riddled with vice, opportunism, and crime. As Wythe lay dying, his doctors insisted that he had not been poisoned, and Sweeney had the nerve to beg him for bail money. In I Am Murdered, this signer of the Declaration of Independence, mentor to Thomas Jefferson, and ""Father of American Jurisprudence"" finally gets the justice he deserved."