Maryland governor pardons 34 victims of racial lynching

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Maryland governor pardons 34 victims of racial lynching

By BRIAN WITTE
May 8, 2021

TOWSON, Md. (AP) — Maryland’s governor on Saturday posthumously pardoned 34 victims of racial lynching in the state dating between 1854 and 1933, saying they were denied legal due process against the allegations they faced.

It was a first-of-its-kind pardon by a governor of a U.S. state.

Gov. Larry Hogan signed the order at an event honoring Howard Cooper, a 15-year-old who was dragged from a jailhouse and hanged from a tree by a mob of white men in 1885 before his attorneys could file an appeal of a rape conviction that an all-white jury reached within minutes.

“My hope is that this action will at least in some way help to right these horrific wrongs and perhaps bring a measure of peace to the memories of these individuals and to their descendants and their loved ones,” Hogan said.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/maryland-government-and-politics-a9c725788a3437b263f30a951786715f


Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, far right, Baltimore County Executive John Olszewski and Maryland House Speaker Adrienne Jones stand next to a new historic marker on Saturday, May 8, 2021 in Towson, Md., that memorializes Howard Cooper, a 15-year-old who was dragged from a jailhouse and hanged from a tree by a mob of white men in 1885. Hogan signed a posthumous pardon for 34 men, including Cooper, who were lynched in the state between 1854 and 1933 without due process against allegations they faced. (AP Photo/Brian Witte)

[Dan]

1. All of these symbolic gestures....

Maybe, it relieves the guilt of the past for the State - a white washing not of history, but of the knowledge that what occurred makes a lie of the myth of American justice.

People that were killed unjustly, pardoned for crimes not committed, are still dead. The pardon doesn't work like sometype of Larzarus fix, and it doesn't undue what happened then.