Why Is The Willie Francis Trial Important

During the time of the Willie Francis trial, black lives were reflected as lower class citizens. Black lives were classified as a non-factor of importance and only mattered for the purpose of labor and production. In the small town of St. Martinville there was an evident divide among races and improper use of power; which created a lack of justice in the eyes of the law. There was an air in the town, that if a black person was accused of committing a crime; they must be guilty. Hearsay in the small town of St. Martinville was the law and set the tone for how people were accused and prosecuted. There was no due process, no stance that a person must be innocent until proven guilty. In the town of St. Martinville laws were created, but not

The approach to law in this town was not to investigate the truth; rely on speculation and evoke a fear into people. A fear that no black life mattered; and if you were accused of harming a white person, death would be the penalty. I believe that black people understood that there was no such thing as a fair trial during this time. The death Louis Michael, set the tone that an innocent black man would be lynched for a crime he didn’t commit. Sadly, when the truth was uncovered, no on acknowledged the wrong doings. Life just continued on, until another innocent black man was found guilty of a crime. In Willie Francis’s first trial there was a total lack of justice fought for his life. His attorneys sat back and watched as his chance for freedom faded right before him. He was only 16 years old, a child that couldn’t fight for his own life. The attorneys perspective was this black boy killed a white man and took the life of a prominent pharmacist. They didn’t see that he was a 16 year old uneducated child; that if investigated evidence would prove there is a strong possibly that he could have

Forty white everyday ordinary men were pulled off the streets and placed as the jury pool of candidates for juror selections for the trial of Willie Francis. None of those men, with connections to the decreased were going to see past the color of his skin and be non-biased. I think not! The lack of lawyering by his attorneys led to his first execution; no one was fighting to hear the truth, discussion of coerced statements or evidence that indicated his innocence. The only person fighting on his behalf was his father; his father didn’t want to lose his son to the corrupt judicial system in the town of St. Martinville. The treatment of Willie Francis was a total disregard for human life, just because he was a black uneducated