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O. G. Brown

Released
Gender:Male
Race:Black
Era:1930s
State:Mississippi
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Biography

O. G. Brown was a Black youth in Mississippi sentenced to death for the alleged theft of $1.85, one of the legal-lynching cases publicised by the International Labor Defense.

The item appeared in the Labor Defender in January 1935 as part of a review of the preceding year, so the sentence belongs to 1934 rather than to a date in 1935. An earlier version of this record dated it to 1935.

Nothing further is established: not the county, the court, the exact offence designation, the arrest or sentencing date, the institution, any appeal or commutation, any execution or release, his vital dates, his full name, or a photograph. IT WOULD BE UNSAFE TO READ THE DEATH SENTENCE AS EVIDENCE THAT HE WAS EXECUTED, and this record does not.

Case

Charges: Alleged theft of $1.85, Mississippi; sentenced to death.
Sentence: Death sentence imposed in 1934, reported in the Labor Defender of January 1935 in a review of the preceding year. Nothing further is established -- no county, court, dates, institution, appeal, commutation, execution or release. The death sentence is not evidence that it was carried out.
Convicted: Sentenced to death, 1935