Joseph Franklin Rutherford

AKA: Judge Rutherford

Released

Date of birth:08. 11. 1869

Date of death:08. 01. 1942

Age:72^{† Deceased}

Gender:Male

Race:White

Era:1910s

State:New York

Time Imprisoned:

9 Months 5 Days

Support

Anti-Militarism Anti-War Socialism Anarchism

Biography

Joseph Franklin Rutherford Missouri-born lawyer; successor to Charles Taze Russell as president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. Lead defendant in the May 1918 federal indictment of eight Watch Tower directors known as the "Rutherford 8" — charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 with attempting to cause insubordination by distributing the millenarian book The Finished Mystery. After trial in EDNY (Brooklyn), jury convicted June 20, 1918; Judge Harland B. Howe imposed 20-year sentences June 21. Defendants entered the U.S. Penitentiary at Atlanta; served roughly nine months, released on bail March 1919 after Justice Brandeis granted relief. Convictions reversed on appeal 1919; charges dropped 1920. Renamed the movement "Jehovah's Witnesses" in 1931.

Case

U.S. Penitentiary Atlanta

Charges: Espionage Act of 1917 — conspiring to cause insubordination, disloyalty, and refusal of duty in the armed forces (publication of The Finished Mystery).

Arrested: May 7, 1918

Sentenced: Jun 20, 1918

Incarcerated: Jun 20, 1918

Released: Mar 25, 1919

Sentence: 20 years federal prison; conviction reversed on appeal 1919; charges dropped 1920

Judge: Hon. Harland B. Howe

Convicted: Yes

Institution State: Georgia

Security: Maximum