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Family of boxer fights for pardon of 1913 racist conviction - CNN.com
And now the rest of the story.
In the above news story, the family is upset and outraged that their ancestor was convicted of violating the Mann Act about 100 years ago and because he was black, want him pardoned.
The truth of the matter is that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Federal Government couldn't prohibit prostitution. That was for the states to do. So we got the Mann Act which made it illegal to transport a woman across state lines for immoral purposes, as that fell under the Federal jurisdiction of interstate commerce. This was the law he broke as he was in the habit of hiring prostitutes and taking them to another state for the act.
He was convicted of transporting a prostitute across state lines for sex. He married the prostitute the Feds had as a witness so she couldn't testify against him. No problem though as the Feds had at least one other standing in line to testify. It took the jury two whole hours to decide that yes, he had violated Federal law by taking a woman across state lines for "immoral purposes", a violation of the Mann Act. He was sentenced to one year and a day in prison.
That should be the end of the story... a man repeatedly commits a crime, gets caught, convicted and sentenced. Nothing new here.
But, because he was black and convicted by an all white jury, they want President Obama to pardon him and clear up the family name. The pardon is only symbolic as it won't change the facts that the ancestor whored around and broke the law (which is still in effect today.)
Gee, in 100 years will Mike Tyson's descendants ask for him to be pardoned, claiming that the rape charges were only because he was black?
