Case Analysis: The Kissing Case

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In 1959, two young African American boys, James Hanover (9) and David “Fuzzy” Simpson (7) were charged with molestation of a young white girl. The case is known as “The Kissing Case”, a case that has been much forgotten and to some even unheard. While there were many issues within the case, the main factor that changed the young boys’ lives forever was the simple fact that they were innocent. Some of the problems in this case are issues that are judicial system still seem unfit to get right in many cases. In this research paper, I will be comparing The Kissing Case too several other cases both historically and more present in which African American males were convicted of crimes they did not commit. The main points and ideas that I will cover are the factors that caused their convictions including the justice system as a whole, the witnesses, evidence or lack of, the time spent incarcerated, and the effects the convictions caused. The Kissing Case The story starts in Monroe, NC where the two boys were playing with some white kids from the neighborhood. In a recent interview with James Hanover, now 67, Hanover states “"We were playing with some friends over in the white neighborhood, chasing spiders and wrestling and stuff like that. One of the little kids suggested that …show more content…

took us down in the bottom of the police station to a cell. And they had us handcuffed — they started beating us. They was beating us to our body, you know? They didn 't beat us to the face, where nobody could see it; they just punched us all in the stomach, and back and legs. We was hollering and screaming. We thought they was gonna kill us" (NPR.org) The boys were held in cells for six days until they were able to see their parents at the hearing held for their case. The Judge found the boys guilty of molestation and sentenced to a reform school for African Americans with the possibility of being released by age 21 if they

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