The motion to dismiss is granted.” (applause) 'Instead, it was used corruptly to sanction the racial terror - lynching of John Henry James. “The indictment was never intended to be and did not serve as an instrument of justice,' she said. They remembered James and many were in the crowded courtroom this week, sitting quietly as Judge Higgins rendered her decision. Let’s just move on.’”īut the black community in Charlottesville did not move on. ‘Hey, don’t even bother to investigate this. “I think it was kind of a signal from the grand jury to law enforcement. University of Virginia Professor Jalane Schmidt studied the case and gave testimony affirming HIngeley’s belief.

The lynching was accomplished by a mob of 150 people, and the 150 people took no pains whatsoever to disguise their identity, and yet the justice system had an inquiry into John Henry James' death, and it concluded that he had met his death at the hands of persons unknown.' “What the justice system was doing was putting a formal accusation against John Henry James on the record, as if to justify the extra-judicial killing of John Henry James. So why did the grand jury decide to indict him? Hingeley believes they were trying to protect the mob from charges of murder. James showed any signs of having been attacked.” The person who claimed to be assaulted said that she scratched his face and his neck, and so on. James as he was being murdered proclaimed his innocence. He told the court that evidence in the case was thin and contradictory. You may proceed,' said Judge Cheryl Higgins. This week, to bring some justice to James, he took the case to court, asking to have the indictment thrown out. Despite that, the grand jury issued the indictment.” “He was taken to a nearby locust tree, lynched, and then his body was shot, and word came to the grand jury that he was killed. He explained that James was on his way back to Charlottesville the next day for a hearing when a mob of about 150 White men stopped the train on which he was riding. “He was taken into custody, and he was removed from Albemarle County to spend the night because of a fear that there would be racial violence directed toward him,' said Jim Hingeley, commonwealth’s attorney for the county.

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