Similarities Between Pitts And Lee

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Freddie Pitts and Wilbert Lee were both accused with the murder of two gas station attendants. The police had beaten a confession out of Lee and Pitts, and after their false confession the police arrested them and took them to jail. “Their conviction was swift and they were beaten by their interrogators” (floridainnocent).They had asked for a mercy trial, they were then sent to a courtroom with a jury full of white men. Willie Mae Lee, was one of the only “eyewitnesses” to the crime that happened on that night. She had been threatened that if she had not told what she had seen on July 31 of 1963 they would punish her. Pitts and Lee were accused that they were the were the killers because of their skin color. They had gotten sentenced to a death …show more content…

The first people to blame are the police that had beaten the confession out of Pitts and Lee. They were a major reason for this case, and why it all went wrong. They had no right to beat a confession out of anyone, even if they black. “CID investigators Potts and Hoag testified that Pitts looked "very tired, like he was in pain", complained that his jaw was swollen, told them he had been beaten, and asked them to feel the bumps on his head, and to see if they could tell what was wrong with his eyes which were bloodshot” (leagle.com).The army men did not report that anything was wrong with him. The second person for the blame, is the court system in Florida, they were bias in such a way that they had put Pitts and Lee in a courtroom with a jury full of white men. They should at least had colored men within the jury but they did not want Pitts and Lee to get a chance of getting away without punishment. They were given a death sentence, and that was to stay until they had gone to higher court. They went nine years with the death penalty hanging over their heads. There are many other people to blame as well, such as the media and false witness testimony as well as the corrupt police

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