WEBVTT - State v Johnson 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:22.756 Pushkin Before we begin, a warning this episode contains material 0:00:22.836 --> 0:00:27.476 that may be upsetting to some listeners. The facts of 0:00:27.516 --> 0:00:30.716 the case in State v. Johnson, as described by the 0:00:30.756 --> 0:00:35.276 alleged victim, are as follows. She was thirty two years old. 0:00:36.156 --> 0:00:39.756 She was a nurse's aide at Talmadge Memorial Hospital. She 0:00:39.876 --> 0:00:42.436 says she left work alone on the evening of January 0:00:42.476 --> 0:00:46.076 twenty sixth at eleven p m. While she was getting 0:00:46.076 --> 0:00:50.636 in her car, the accused, Nathaniel Johnson, seized her and 0:00:50.756 --> 0:00:52.836 threatened to kill her if she did not get into 0:00:52.876 --> 0:00:57.196 his car. She got away, screamed for help. He caught her. 0:00:57.756 --> 0:01:00.036 She told him to take her money and leave her alone, 0:01:00.396 --> 0:01:03.876 but he replied, I don't want money, I want you. 0:01:07.196 --> 0:01:10.836 The victim's description of what happened that night is very graphic. 0:01:11.276 --> 0:01:14.116 It goes on for several pages. I'm giving you an 0:01:14.116 --> 0:01:17.956 abridged version, but it's still very disturbing, so please keep 0:01:17.956 --> 0:01:22.476 that in mind. As you'll see, understanding exactly what the 0:01:22.516 --> 0:01:29.916 defendant was accused of in this instance is crucial. She 0:01:29.996 --> 0:01:32.596 got away and ran screaming onto the lawn of the hospital, 0:01:32.996 --> 0:01:35.516 where he once again caught her and dragged her to 0:01:35.596 --> 0:01:40.596 his car. He knocked her down, repeatedly slapped her in 0:01:40.676 --> 0:01:43.036 the face, and told her to shut up or he 0:01:43.036 --> 0:01:47.436 would kill her. Johnson placed his knee on her chest, 0:01:47.996 --> 0:01:50.836 pinning her down, put his hand on her throat into 0:01:50.836 --> 0:01:54.316 the trachia and kept bearing down on it, telling her 0:01:54.356 --> 0:01:57.996 to quit screaming. He closed her nostrils with his other hand, 0:01:58.356 --> 0:02:01.676 and since she could not get air, she lost consciousness. 0:02:02.636 --> 0:02:05.036 When she came to, she realized that she was in 0:02:05.076 --> 0:02:10.196 the back of a moving automobile. He finally stopped his 0:02:10.276 --> 0:02:13.356 car on a dirt road, pushed her out onto the ground, 0:02:13.836 --> 0:02:18.356 and raped her. He took a shot of whiskey and 0:02:18.396 --> 0:02:21.476 asked her if she drank. She replied that she did not, 0:02:21.596 --> 0:02:24.956 that she was a Sunday school teacher. He raped her 0:02:24.956 --> 0:02:28.636 a second time they drove back into town. He took 0:02:28.676 --> 0:02:32.596 her wallet, wrote down her name, address, telephone number, and 0:02:32.636 --> 0:02:35.276 her husband's name on a piece of paper, and put 0:02:35.316 --> 0:02:41.036 it in his pocket. Pictures taken of the victim immediately 0:02:41.076 --> 0:02:44.916 after the assault and placed in evidence without objection on 0:02:45.116 --> 0:02:50.876 quoting now shows several severe scratches and bruises on her face, head, 0:02:51.156 --> 0:02:54.876 and throat, and testimony offered by the state shows that 0:02:54.956 --> 0:02:57.196 her clothing was badly torn and bloody. 0:02:58.076 --> 0:02:58.316 End of. 0:03:01.796 --> 0:03:07.036 The alleged perpetrator, Nathaniel Johnson was arrested. The victim picked 0:03:07.076 --> 0:03:10.756 him out of a lineup. He confesned, he was tried, 0:03:11.396 --> 0:03:18.916 he was convicted. Here's my question, how do you feel 0:03:18.916 --> 0:03:23.076 about the case of State v. Johnson. We have a victim, 0:03:23.436 --> 0:03:27.716 we have physical evidence, we have a positive identification, we 0:03:27.796 --> 0:03:31.476 have a confession. Do you know all you need to know? 0:03:35.836 --> 0:03:39.316 My name is Malcolm Gladwell. You're listening to Revisionist History, 0:03:39.716 --> 0:03:49.396 my podcast about things overlooked and misunderstood. In the course 0:03:49.436 --> 0:03:52.636 of this season, I have been preoccupied with the subject 0:03:52.636 --> 0:03:57.396 of power, the particular power of friendship, the way shifts 0:03:57.396 --> 0:04:00.596 in power change the way we remember the past. And 0:04:00.676 --> 0:04:03.796 with this episode and the next one, I want to 0:04:03.836 --> 0:04:06.956 return to that subject one more time and focus on 0:04:06.996 --> 0:04:10.116 our reluctance to acknowledge the role of power, the way 0:04:10.156 --> 0:04:12.236 we pretend that we can make sense of the world 0:04:12.476 --> 0:04:15.716 without first clarifying who has the power and who does not. 0:04:24.276 --> 0:04:26.276 Let me give you an example of what I mean 0:04:26.316 --> 0:04:30.276 about the complicating effects of power. It's from Well into 0:04:30.276 --> 0:04:34.756 the trial of Nathaniel Johnson. One after another, witnesses against 0:04:34.836 --> 0:04:39.396 Johnson have presented devastating evidence. One of the arresting officers 0:04:39.676 --> 0:04:43.356 is testifying about what Nathaniel Johnson said in his confession. 0:04:44.356 --> 0:04:47.916 It's a small moment and slips out seemingly without anyone 0:04:47.956 --> 0:04:52.316 remarking on it. This is what the officer says. Nathaniel 0:04:52.396 --> 0:04:55.956 Johnson told us that after he had intercourse with this 0:04:56.076 --> 0:05:00.116 lady there, that she asked him for a cigarette. He said, 0:05:00.276 --> 0:05:02.796 he give her a cigarette and said he took one 0:05:02.916 --> 0:05:05.876 and smoked it himself, and said they threw the butts 0:05:05.916 --> 0:05:09.396 down there. We found three butts there at this place, 0:05:09.836 --> 0:05:15.556 at the scene, we found three butts there? Does that 0:05:15.596 --> 0:05:19.516 fact strike you as strange? Is it commonplace for two 0:05:19.556 --> 0:05:23.556 people to share a cigarette after a brutal rape? And 0:05:23.596 --> 0:05:26.836 how about this? It also slips out in the trial 0:05:26.876 --> 0:05:30.796 without comment. The police chief, a man named George Mutimer, 0:05:31.196 --> 0:05:35.676 tells the court about Nathaniel Johnson's confession. Johnson's talked about 0:05:35.756 --> 0:05:39.396 driving with the victim in his car. They fought, she resisted, 0:05:39.756 --> 0:05:43.476 he was apparently choking her. And then Mutimer testifies, and 0:05:43.516 --> 0:05:47.196 I'm quoting, he said at that time that he drove off, 0:05:47.636 --> 0:05:50.036 went to a little side road off the New Savannah 0:05:50.076 --> 0:05:53.156 Road and parked, and he claims that she said it 0:05:53.196 --> 0:05:56.116 was too close to the road. He drove on maybe 0:05:56.196 --> 0:06:02.756 half a city block further and parked. Why is the 0:06:02.836 --> 0:06:06.356 victim complaining to her rapist that he's parked too close 0:06:06.396 --> 0:06:12.236 to the road. Then there's a prosecution's star witness on 0:06:12.356 --> 0:06:17.276 Missus Bailey. She testifies that three years earlier, Nathaniel Johnson 0:06:17.316 --> 0:06:18.876 had come up to her while she was sitting in 0:06:18.916 --> 0:06:22.156 a parked car and he tried to assault her. And 0:06:22.276 --> 0:06:27.116 reading now from the transcript, the prosecutor asks, Missus Bailey, 0:06:27.516 --> 0:06:30.236 you testified that this man grabbed you round the throat 0:06:30.556 --> 0:06:33.356 and you screamed and somebody came out of the door. 0:06:33.396 --> 0:06:37.316 I believe Missus Bailey, Yes, sir, prosecutor. Did you see 0:06:37.316 --> 0:06:40.076 where he went, Missus Bailey, I saw him run down 0:06:40.076 --> 0:06:44.796 the road, Prosecutor, How fast was he going? Bailey? Mighty fast. 0:06:47.236 --> 0:06:50.156 Nathaniel Johnson happens to be an Army veteran who lost 0:06:50.196 --> 0:06:53.916 part of his foot in combat, broke both legs, both arms, 0:06:54.076 --> 0:06:57.436 his shoulder, broke his collar bone, six bullets in his hip. 0:06:57.756 --> 0:07:00.836 He spent two years in a rehab hospital recovering. I 0:07:00.876 --> 0:07:08.276 don't see him running mighty fast anywhere. At the very 0:07:08.356 --> 0:07:12.516 end of the trial, Nathaniel Johnson finally speaks. He's not 0:07:12.716 --> 0:07:16.956 very coherent. He knows he's going to get convicted. He's confessed. 0:07:17.596 --> 0:07:19.996 He starts out by saying that he had a statement 0:07:20.036 --> 0:07:23.036 he wanted to make, but he's decided against giving it. 0:07:23.996 --> 0:07:28.396 Again from the court transcript, this is Nathaniel Johnson. I 0:07:28.436 --> 0:07:31.916 don't know. I just don't feel that it was. It 0:07:31.956 --> 0:07:36.276 would be, it would be well, it would be, you know, 0:07:36.876 --> 0:07:39.676 for me to say it, But to tell the truth 0:07:39.716 --> 0:07:44.876 about it well makes you wonder. Trial is over. He's 0:07:44.916 --> 0:07:49.076 already confessed. Why is he hemming in hawing? He goes on, 0:07:50.156 --> 0:07:51.636 I am here to say to day that I am 0:07:51.676 --> 0:07:54.756 not guilty of rape. I won't give this statement which 0:07:54.796 --> 0:07:57.196 would run the facts down on what really happened and 0:07:57.236 --> 0:08:01.076 everything to keep from bringing a disturbment in a century 0:08:01.156 --> 0:08:04.716 of colored and white at this time, I don't want 0:08:04.716 --> 0:08:13.916 to be responsible for it. Nathaniel Johnson wanted to avoid 0:08:13.956 --> 0:08:18.836 bringing a disturbment between colored and white. I asked you 0:08:18.876 --> 0:08:21.516 at the beginning, how sure you were about the guilty 0:08:21.596 --> 0:08:24.476 verdict against Nathaniel Johnson. We had a victim, we had 0:08:24.476 --> 0:08:28.116 physical evidence, we had a positive identification, we had a confession. 0:08:28.636 --> 0:08:33.196 That sounds like enough, But that little reference to colored 0:08:33.236 --> 0:08:36.516 and white is a reminder that I left out almost 0:08:36.556 --> 0:08:41.116 all of the details having to do with power. Where 0:08:41.116 --> 0:08:44.076 did the rape allegedly take place, Well, let me tell 0:08:44.076 --> 0:08:49.316 you in Augusta, Georgia, the South. Okay, when did it 0:08:49.396 --> 0:08:54.636 allegedly take place? Nineteen fifty nine, a very different era 0:08:54.676 --> 0:09:00.076 in a place like Augusta, Georgia. And the most crucial fact, 0:09:00.476 --> 0:09:05.276 colored and white. The accuser was white, her alleged assailant, 0:09:05.476 --> 0:09:11.516 Nathaniel Johnson was black. After his arrest, Johnson has taken 0:09:11.556 --> 0:09:13.676 to the interrogation room at the police station with the 0:09:13.796 --> 0:09:18.316 arresting officer, Holly Tebow. Tebow's not getting anywhere, so he 0:09:18.396 --> 0:09:22.876 calls in Chief Mutimer. At the trial Tebo says they 0:09:22.916 --> 0:09:26.476 do that quite frequently because whenever they call him Mutimer, 0:09:27.036 --> 0:09:31.636 most of the people talk. Then Tebow goes on. Chief 0:09:31.716 --> 0:09:34.676 Mutimer stayed in the interrogation room with him for some time, 0:09:35.036 --> 0:09:38.636 and he came out and shook his head and said, Holly, 0:09:39.236 --> 0:09:41.556 he told me about it. And I went back and 0:09:41.596 --> 0:09:45.516 there in the interrogation room, and he was crying Nathaniel 0:09:45.556 --> 0:09:49.916 was crying. The chief of police, who was really good 0:09:49.916 --> 0:09:53.956 at making people talk, disappears alone into the interrogation room 0:09:53.956 --> 0:09:57.156 with Johnson for a few hours, no lawyer's in sight, 0:09:57.716 --> 0:10:02.236 and when he emerges, he has a confession. Let me 0:10:02.356 --> 0:10:05.956 read to you again from Nathaniel Johnson's closing statement, only 0:10:06.036 --> 0:10:09.676 this time keep in mind who he is, where he is, 0:10:10.036 --> 0:10:14.596 and when it is. Johnson says, I am not guilty 0:10:14.596 --> 0:10:17.796 of rape. And the statement I have is a true statement. 0:10:18.716 --> 0:10:20.836 But the shape of the courtroom to the community and 0:10:20.876 --> 0:10:24.276 citizens of this town, colored and white, I think I 0:10:24.316 --> 0:10:27.556 would bring a big confusion between them. And I know 0:10:27.716 --> 0:10:29.756 rape is a serious charge, and I know it is 0:10:29.796 --> 0:10:32.316 more serious by a colored man being accused of rape 0:10:32.356 --> 0:10:35.276 by a white woman. And so I want to leave 0:10:35.316 --> 0:10:37.916 it in you all's hands and trust you all to 0:10:37.956 --> 0:10:40.756 do what the Lord and justice of it. And I 0:10:40.796 --> 0:10:43.876 am not guilty of rape in my heart. That is 0:10:43.916 --> 0:10:48.436 the truth from God. If you don't know, it's Georgia, 0:10:48.796 --> 0:10:52.396 it's nineteen fifty nine, and that Nathaniel Johnson is black 0:10:52.436 --> 0:11:02.156 and his victim is white. What do you know? Nothing? 0:11:03.636 --> 0:11:06.516 In Georgia, there is a lineage of civil rights lawyers, 0:11:06.996 --> 0:11:10.556 A tradition. It begins with the man named at Walden, 0:11:11.156 --> 0:11:14.316 born in eighteen eighty five to two former slaves in 0:11:14.356 --> 0:11:15.436 Fort Valley, Georgia. 0:11:16.716 --> 0:11:21.396 When I was a kid, and Austin Thomas Walden, who 0:11:21.476 --> 0:11:27.276 finished University of Michigan in nineteen twelve, would come to 0:11:27.356 --> 0:11:32.796 my church for the Saint cecia vesper hour, and I 0:11:32.836 --> 0:11:36.356 sang in the Saint ceci A choir, and I would 0:11:36.396 --> 0:11:40.796 hear him speak about segregation, and he would say, I'll 0:11:40.836 --> 0:11:44.156 be glad when you are dead, that you rascal. You. 0:11:46.156 --> 0:11:50.796 So I grew up wanting to be a lawyer like 0:11:51.076 --> 0:11:52.396 Austin T. Walden. 0:11:53.796 --> 0:11:56.756 Vernon Jordan, one of the legends of the civil rights movement. 0:11:57.316 --> 0:12:00.516 He's had an extraordinary career. He ran the Urban League 0:12:00.556 --> 0:12:03.356 for years. He was a close confident on the President Clinton, 0:12:03.796 --> 0:12:07.036 a deal maker on Wall Street. He's eighty one years old. 0:12:07.036 --> 0:12:10.236 He must be six foot four in pecker Southern manners, 0:12:10.676 --> 0:12:13.516 a long and passive face. When he talks to you, 0:12:13.956 --> 0:12:16.956 he leans down from his great height and lowers his voice. 0:12:17.596 --> 0:12:20.836 So in nineteen sixty five, as a very young lawyer, 0:12:20.916 --> 0:12:26.236 I was asked to give the Emancipation Proclamation Day speech. 0:12:27.836 --> 0:12:30.236 I went to see Jordan in his office in Rockefeller 0:12:30.276 --> 0:12:33.156 Center a worse suit. I was told I had to 0:12:33.636 --> 0:12:37.676 Vernon likes people to dress properly. He began by describing 0:12:37.676 --> 0:12:40.716 his induction into the Civil Rights Fraternity. The day the 0:12:40.796 --> 0:12:43.716 Georgia NAACP asked him to speak. 0:12:44.636 --> 0:12:50.276 Walden was on this pool pit with braces on his legs. 0:12:50.276 --> 0:12:54.436 He could hardly move and when by when I finished, 0:12:55.076 --> 0:13:00.316 Walden struggled up to me and said he had a 0:13:00.356 --> 0:13:03.676 home run. Son, you hit a home run that was 0:13:04.756 --> 0:13:09.556 delaying on of hands. That was the blessing. 0:13:11.156 --> 0:13:14.916 In the lineage of civil rights lawyers at Walden came first. 0:13:15.676 --> 0:13:18.356 Next in line was a man named Donald L. Hollowell, 0:13:18.836 --> 0:13:21.916 another legend. I will have much much more to say 0:13:21.956 --> 0:13:26.516 about Hollowell in the next episode. Vernon Jordan was inspired 0:13:26.556 --> 0:13:29.276 by Walden, and straight out of law school he went 0:13:29.316 --> 0:13:32.636 to work for Hollowell. He was a disciple of two 0:13:32.716 --> 0:13:35.156 of the greats. And I went to see Jordan to 0:13:35.236 --> 0:13:38.596 learn what being a disciple in Georgia in those years meant. 0:13:39.916 --> 0:13:44.396 What did you learn? What were you up against? There 0:13:44.396 --> 0:13:46.916 were very few black lawyers in the South in those years. 0:13:47.516 --> 0:13:50.356 If you were black and in trouble, you rarely had 0:13:50.356 --> 0:13:53.756 one of your own to represent you. Justice is supposed 0:13:53.796 --> 0:13:56.396 to be blind, which is another way of saying that 0:13:56.436 --> 0:13:58.516 we're supposed to close our eyes when we enter a 0:13:58.596 --> 0:14:02.636 courtroom and not notice a fact like race. In nineteen 0:14:02.716 --> 0:14:06.116 fifty nine, Donald Hollowell and Vernon Jordan had their eyes 0:14:06.236 --> 0:14:09.676 wide open. They watched what was happening to me Nathaniel 0:14:09.716 --> 0:14:12.516 Johnson and Augusta with growing alarm. 0:14:13.796 --> 0:14:19.236 And he was given a white quarter pointed lawyer who 0:14:19.316 --> 0:14:22.996 convinced him, given the circumstances of a black man being 0:14:23.116 --> 0:14:26.436 accused by a white woman of rape, said to him, 0:14:27.396 --> 0:14:29.756 the best way to stay out of the electric chair 0:14:31.236 --> 0:14:34.796 is to plead guilty and have her corroborate your guilty. 0:14:34.876 --> 0:14:41.596 Plead and you'll get life. And he went for it. 0:14:43.316 --> 0:14:46.356 He did not get life, He got the electric chair. 0:14:47.476 --> 0:14:50.036 To put that in perspective, there was a case in 0:14:50.076 --> 0:14:52.916 Atlanta right around the same time as Johnson's only that 0:14:52.996 --> 0:14:55.956 involved a white man convicted of raping his black maid. 0:14:56.676 --> 0:15:00.076 He broke down the bathroom door and attacked her. He 0:15:00.156 --> 0:15:03.756 got two to five years. White on black rape was 0:15:03.796 --> 0:15:06.116 a two to five year crime in a state of Georgia. 0:15:06.836 --> 0:15:11.276 Johnson faced a death penalty, so when Johnson says in 0:15:11.316 --> 0:15:14.716 his final statement, I know rape is a serious charge, 0:15:15.036 --> 0:15:17.036 and I know it is more serious by a colored 0:15:17.076 --> 0:15:20.036 man being accused of rape by a white woman. That's 0:15:20.036 --> 0:15:23.276 what he's talking about. There's one set of rules for 0:15:23.356 --> 0:15:28.076 white people and another for black people, and the standards 0:15:28.076 --> 0:15:31.076 for legal representation those are different too. 0:15:31.756 --> 0:15:35.636 The White Court upon It lawyer the night before he 0:15:35.796 --> 0:15:38.956 was to be executed, got drunk in an augusta bar 0:15:40.316 --> 0:15:42.916 barred paper from the bartend that wrote out a rid 0:15:42.916 --> 0:15:49.636 of pavias corpus, and went to the judge to argue 0:15:49.676 --> 0:15:57.276 that Nathaniel Johnson's rights under the Fifth Amendment had been violated. 0:15:58.596 --> 0:16:02.996 As it turns out, that's the wrong amendment. Under those circumstances, 0:16:03.156 --> 0:16:06.236 the lawyer should have raised the Fourteenth Amendment. But the 0:16:06.316 --> 0:16:09.436 lawyer's writing an appeal while he's drunk, and it's not 0:16:09.476 --> 0:16:11.716 at all clear that he cares that much, since if 0:16:11.756 --> 0:16:16.236 you read the trial transcript, Johnson's lawyer barely ever said anything. 0:16:16.676 --> 0:16:19.756 And it went up to the Supreme Court on sociary, 0:16:20.356 --> 0:16:26.796 which was denied. And then mister Hallowell, my boss, was hired, 0:16:26.916 --> 0:16:30.876 and I went with him to see Nathaniel Johnson and 0:16:30.916 --> 0:16:37.436 the Reidsville State Prison. He was a very handsome, cool prisoner. 0:16:38.436 --> 0:16:41.596 Hallowell and Jordan were brought in by the NAACP to 0:16:41.676 --> 0:16:45.276 try and win a stay of execution. One last Hail Mary. 0:16:45.716 --> 0:16:48.996 How old was? He must have been thirty thirty two, 0:16:49.156 --> 0:16:49.876 something like that. 0:16:50.716 --> 0:16:53.876 Jordan and Hallowell sit down with Johnson and start to 0:16:53.876 --> 0:16:57.356 piece together Johnson's version of what happened that night. It's 0:16:57.396 --> 0:17:00.836 a very different story. 0:17:01.716 --> 0:17:05.436 He was having a relationship with this woman, this white woman, 0:17:06.916 --> 0:17:12.036 and the relationship was put together by a black assistant 0:17:12.156 --> 0:17:16.996 nurse at the hospital in Augusta, and he would go 0:17:17.076 --> 0:17:20.276 and pick her up and they would go out on 0:17:20.316 --> 0:17:22.356 the roads and do their business. 0:17:24.516 --> 0:17:27.676 In the version of events that got Johnson convicted, the 0:17:27.756 --> 0:17:31.636 victim had never seen him before. But Nathaniel Johnson told 0:17:31.716 --> 0:17:34.196 Jordan and halliwell, they had been spotted together. 0:17:35.076 --> 0:17:37.996 One night. They were out on the road and the 0:17:38.076 --> 0:17:41.356 car got stuck in the mud, and a group of 0:17:41.396 --> 0:17:46.196 white hunters were crossing the road. And she gets out 0:17:46.236 --> 0:17:50.116 and says, I'm taking my yard man home. And we 0:17:50.196 --> 0:17:54.236 got stuck in the mud, and these white hunters pushed 0:17:54.276 --> 0:17:56.116 the car out of the mud. 0:17:58.196 --> 0:18:00.396 If you read the official account of the case, it 0:18:00.476 --> 0:18:03.036 says that the victim reported her alleged assault to the 0:18:03.036 --> 0:18:06.156 police in the early hours of the morning on January 0:18:06.236 --> 0:18:10.356 twenty seventh, after she gets home. Then it goes on 0:18:10.396 --> 0:18:14.756 to say crucially that the police arrest Johnson that same night. 0:18:15.436 --> 0:18:18.036 Think about that Augusta at the time is a city 0:18:18.076 --> 0:18:21.636 of seventy thousand people, roughly half black. So we are 0:18:21.676 --> 0:18:23.716 asked to believe that, in the course of a couple 0:18:23.796 --> 0:18:27.316 of hours, without benefit of daylight, the police were able 0:18:27.356 --> 0:18:30.476 to correctly locate, in a community of thirty five thousand 0:18:30.516 --> 0:18:33.836 African Americans a suspect, and that they did this with 0:18:33.956 --> 0:18:36.716 no more than the description of his automobile from a 0:18:36.716 --> 0:18:41.196 badly traumatized rape victim. Because she'd never met him before. 0:18:42.916 --> 0:18:48.636 And so after a visit on the dark road, she 0:18:48.836 --> 0:18:53.876 said to him that she was pregnant, and a disagreement ensued. 0:18:54.796 --> 0:18:58.076 They had a fight. It beat her up. That's how 0:18:58.116 --> 0:19:01.476 she ended up with all those injuries. Johnson had physical 0:19:01.556 --> 0:19:05.956 power over her, but she had far greater power over him. 0:19:06.436 --> 0:19:09.276 In that time and place, a white woman had the 0:19:09.316 --> 0:19:12.036 power of life and death over a black man. 0:19:13.116 --> 0:19:16.276 She went home and told her husband that she had 0:19:16.316 --> 0:19:20.916 been raped and they went to Nathaniel Johnson's house in 0:19:20.956 --> 0:19:24.516 the middle of the night. Illegal arrest, illegal searcher and sez, 0:19:24.756 --> 0:19:26.516 illegal attention, all of that. 0:19:27.596 --> 0:19:29.916 When you saw him, did he think that he had 0:19:29.916 --> 0:19:30.356 a chance. 0:19:31.236 --> 0:19:35.236 He was just scared to death. He was just scared 0:19:35.316 --> 0:19:38.636 to death, and we were his only hope. 0:19:39.316 --> 0:19:47.916 We were his only hope. And so Hallowell and Jordan 0:19:48.196 --> 0:19:52.116 set out to save Nathaniel Johnson's life anyway they can 0:19:53.036 --> 0:19:56.916 stay the execution, fight for a new trial. Jordan was 0:19:56.956 --> 0:20:01.036 fresh out of law school, full of righteous anger and idealism. 0:20:01.276 --> 0:20:07.356 And I remember going into his cell with him and 0:20:07.436 --> 0:20:11.356 mister Hallowell when holliwa said, we're going to see the 0:20:11.396 --> 0:20:15.836 local judge here. Then we will drive to Atlanta and 0:20:15.876 --> 0:20:20.276 we will go to see the Chief Justice, Supreme Court, 0:20:20.356 --> 0:20:24.396 the Attorney General, the Governor, and the Board of part 0:20:24.476 --> 0:20:25.036 in pro. 0:20:26.116 --> 0:20:29.476 It was the beginning of the apprenticeship of Vernon Jordan. 0:20:30.076 --> 0:20:35.396 And that's when mister Hallowell put me on the case 0:20:35.436 --> 0:20:40.436 and we went to Brunswick, Georgia, which I'll never forget. 0:20:40.516 --> 0:20:48.196 The federal district judge there began the case by asking 0:20:49.436 --> 0:20:56.956 when is the execution schedule, and they said tomorrow morning, 0:20:57.036 --> 0:21:00.236 your honor. So he listened to the state Attorney. As 0:21:00.316 --> 0:21:04.556 he listened to mister Hallowell, and I remember him saying, 0:21:04.836 --> 0:21:13.156 justice delayed is justice denied. And we drove from Brunswick 0:21:14.036 --> 0:21:17.916 after he refused to stay the execution, from Brunswick, Georgia, 0:21:17.996 --> 0:21:23.196 to Atlanta. That's when it was all two highways. I 0:21:23.276 --> 0:21:28.196 did the driving, and we ended up and the chambers 0:21:28.276 --> 0:21:34.956 of the Chief Justice. And he walked in and says, 0:21:34.956 --> 0:21:39.596 sees me, and he said, son, where did you play basketball? 0:21:40.996 --> 0:21:44.676 And I said, mister Chief Justice, we're not here to 0:21:44.756 --> 0:21:49.876 talk about where I played basketball. We're here about the 0:21:49.996 --> 0:21:58.636 life from Nathaniel Johnson. He said that color Bar went 0:21:58.716 --> 0:22:01.196 out there on that road and raped that woman. I 0:22:01.196 --> 0:22:06.516 don't wanna hear about that. We then go from his 0:22:06.716 --> 0:22:11.156 chambers to the next bill where the Attorney General was. 0:22:13.036 --> 0:22:15.996 Secretary picks up the phone and says to the Attorney General, 0:22:16.036 --> 0:22:19.036 mister Attorney General, they had two boys out here to 0:22:19.156 --> 0:22:25.196 see you. The Attorney General of Georgia, Henry Neal, did 0:22:25.196 --> 0:22:28.636 not invite us into his office. He came out and 0:22:28.716 --> 0:22:34.956 stood behind the secretary's desk and said that the governor 0:22:35.836 --> 0:22:40.236 was out of town, and the governor would not stay 0:22:40.276 --> 0:22:46.516 the execution, and we left and went to the Board 0:22:46.556 --> 0:22:51.076 of Partnering Paroles. And as we walked in the door, 0:22:52.996 --> 0:22:57.436 he said, hallowell, you're too late. Nathaniel Johnson is on 0:22:57.476 --> 0:22:59.196 his way to the electric chair. 0:23:00.316 --> 0:23:01.796 There was nothing more for them to do. 0:23:03.036 --> 0:23:06.836 I said, missus Hall, I would like to have the 0:23:06.876 --> 0:23:13.276 rest of the day off. He said fine. And I 0:23:13.356 --> 0:23:20.756 had on a light beige has spelled suit that I 0:23:20.796 --> 0:23:27.236 had gotten for graduation, and I walked down Hunter Street home. 0:23:27.596 --> 0:23:33.636 It was eighty five ninety degrees in Atlanta, and I'm 0:23:33.636 --> 0:23:42.756 walking alone thinking what I had just witnessed, thinking about 0:23:42.756 --> 0:23:44.876 the first time I saw him, and thinking about seeing 0:23:44.956 --> 0:23:53.836 him the night before he died. And I just walked 0:23:53.836 --> 0:24:03.516 home crying. It's the only time in my eighty one 0:24:03.636 --> 0:24:13.516 years that I can remember losing control and just urinated 0:24:13.836 --> 0:24:20.076 all over myself on my brand new beige suit. I 0:24:20.116 --> 0:24:24.636 remember that as vivid is. I see you right now. 0:24:30.556 --> 0:24:33.596 When Vernon Jordan told me the story of Nathaniel Johnson, 0:24:34.356 --> 0:24:36.956 the first thing I thought about was Harperly's classic To 0:24:37.036 --> 0:24:41.076 Kill a Mockingbird, the book every American child reads in 0:24:41.116 --> 0:24:41.756 middle school. 0:24:43.436 --> 0:24:51.156 Now, Maylow suppose you tell us just what happened? Huh? 0:24:51.196 --> 0:24:53.196 It tells the same basic story, right. 0:24:54.076 --> 0:24:57.796 I was sitting on the porch and he come along. 0:24:58.916 --> 0:25:01.996 The Jim Crow South, a black man named Tom Robinson 0:25:02.396 --> 0:25:05.996 accused of rape by a white woman, may La Yule, and. 0:25:05.916 --> 0:25:08.436 I turned around it before I know what he's on me. 0:25:10.036 --> 0:25:13.996 But Tom Robinson's lawyer, Atticus Finch, is white, which of 0:25:13.996 --> 0:25:18.876 course changes everything. Finch addresses an all male, all white 0:25:18.956 --> 0:25:22.196 jury men just like him, So what does he do? 0:25:22.476 --> 0:25:25.076 He puts Robinson on the stand and has him talk 0:25:25.156 --> 0:25:27.596 about all the ways in which Mayella Hill try to 0:25:27.636 --> 0:25:29.436 trap him. 0:25:29.996 --> 0:25:36.316 Tom. Were you acquainted with Mayellow Violet Eule? I had 0:25:36.316 --> 0:25:38.196 to pass her place going to in front of the 0:25:38.196 --> 0:25:38.956 field every day. 0:25:39.876 --> 0:25:43.196 Robinson says, he just happened to be walking by Mayella's house. 0:25:43.836 --> 0:25:46.356 She asks him to come in and help her dismantle 0:25:46.396 --> 0:25:49.796 a piece of furniture. Then she hugs him around the waist. 0:25:50.156 --> 0:25:53.756 Scared miss and I hoped down and turned the tails. 0:25:54.276 --> 0:25:56.996 How was the only thing under Atticus Finch's careful direction? 0:25:57.516 --> 0:26:00.396 Robinson then says, one more thing. And by the way, 0:26:00.716 --> 0:26:02.996 if you've watched the famous Gregory Peck movie version of 0:26:03.036 --> 0:26:05.836 To Kill a Mockingbird, the one you're in hearing. You 0:26:05.876 --> 0:26:13.156 won't find these lines. Here's how it's originally written. She 0:26:13.316 --> 0:26:15.436 reached up and kissed me on the side of the face. 0:26:15.956 --> 0:26:18.476 She says. She never kissed a grown man before, and 0:26:18.516 --> 0:26:21.116 she might as well kiss a nigger. She says, what 0:26:21.236 --> 0:26:24.316 her papa do to her don't count. She says, kiss 0:26:24.356 --> 0:26:27.476 me back, nigger. I say, miss Mayella, let me out 0:26:27.516 --> 0:26:29.716 of here, and I tried to run, but she got 0:26:29.716 --> 0:26:31.556 her back to the door and I had to push her. 0:26:31.716 --> 0:26:33.636 I don't want to harm her, mister Finch, and I say, 0:26:33.716 --> 0:26:36.196 let me pass. But just when I say it, mister 0:26:36.276 --> 0:26:39.516 yule Yonder hollered through a window. What did he say? 0:26:40.596 --> 0:26:45.236 Tom Robinson shut his eyes tight. He says, you goddamn whore. 0:26:45.676 --> 0:26:57.116 I'll kill you. In his summation to the court, Arakas 0:26:57.116 --> 0:27:00.596 Finch says she knew full well the enormity of her offense, 0:27:01.036 --> 0:27:03.956 but because her desires were stronger than the code she 0:27:04.076 --> 0:27:08.356 was breaking, she persisted in breaking it. He's saying she 0:27:08.516 --> 0:27:11.476 wanted it, and not only that. When he has Tom 0:27:11.556 --> 0:27:14.636 Robinson drop that little bit about she says that what 0:27:14.716 --> 0:27:17.596 her papa do to her don't count. He's accusing her 0:27:17.596 --> 0:27:22.876 of incest. Finch is offering his fellow white men on 0:27:22.956 --> 0:27:26.276 the jury a choice. He says, Look, you can act 0:27:26.276 --> 0:27:29.756 as white people and enforce your power against black people, 0:27:30.316 --> 0:27:32.756 or you can act as men and enforce the power 0:27:32.796 --> 0:27:36.596 of your gender against women. Atticus Finch gets an awful 0:27:36.596 --> 0:27:39.036 out of love. But when I read that book, all 0:27:39.076 --> 0:27:42.476 I could think was he's just telling them, don't be racist, 0:27:42.796 --> 0:27:47.876 be sexist. That might be a good argument in the moment, 0:27:48.436 --> 0:27:58.356 but it's not especially noble. When Vernon Jordan is walking 0:27:58.396 --> 0:28:02.156 through the streets of Atlanta with that humiliating stain spreading 0:28:02.196 --> 0:28:05.156 down his beige suit, he knows he doesn't have the 0:28:05.196 --> 0:28:09.316 same freedom that Antticus Finch has. Finch is free to 0:28:09.316 --> 0:28:12.636 say whatever he wants to the jury, that's the privilege 0:28:12.676 --> 0:28:17.516 of his race and position, but Jordan is powerless. That's 0:28:17.556 --> 0:28:21.156