Elmina Slenker

AKA: Elizabeth Drake
Released
Full name:Elmina Drake Slenker
Date of birth:23. 12. 1827
Date of death:01. 02. 1908
Age:80† Deceased
Gender:Female
Race:White
Era:1800s
State:Virginia
Time Imprisoned:
6 Months 7 Days
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Elmina Slenker

Biography

Elmina Slenker was a freethought writer, atheist and birth control advocate, in Snowville, Virginia. Postal investigators began correspondence with her using pseudonyms in order to obtain letters from her which could be used to charge her with obscenity. On April 28, 1887, she was arrested under the federal Comstock postal-obscenity law and held on $2,000 bail, principally at the Wytheville Jail. Indicted on July 12, she went on trial in Abingdon on October 31 and was found guilty of mailing allegedly obscene writings. On November 4, 1887, the conviction was overturned — the indictment failed to allege that she knew the writings were legally obscene — and Slenker was released.

Case

Wytheville Jail
Charges: Mailing allegedly obscene writings, under the federal Comstock postal-obscenity law — private letters written in reply to postal investigators who had opened a correspondence with her under pseudonyms.
Arrested: Apr 28, 1887
Incarcerated: Apr 28, 1887
Released: Nov 4, 1887
Sentence: None imposed. Held on $2,000 bail from her arrest on April 28, 1887, principally at the Wytheville Jail; tried at Abingdon on October 31, when the guilty verdict came the same day the trial opened; released on November 4, 1887 when judgment was arrested and the conviction fell. She spent 190 days in custody — about six months and one week — and was never sentenced. Charges as recorded: Mailing allegedly obscene writings, under the federal Comstock postal-obscenity law — private letters written in reply to postal investigators who had opened a correspondence with her under pseudonyms for the purpose of obtaining them.
Indicted: July 12, 1887
Convicted: Found guilty on October 31, 1887 — VACATED on November 4, 1887, when the court arrested judgment because the indictment failed to allege that she knew the writings were legally obscene.
Institution State: Virginia

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