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George Lawrence, Solicitor General for Georgia, and Donald Hollowell, NAACP attorney, discuss the opportunity for Preston Cobb, a fifteen-year old African American youth, to receive a new trial. Cobb was tried for the June 1, 1961 murder of Coleman Dumas, a white man on whose property Cobb's family resided. An all-white Jasper County jury convicted Cobb of murder on August 16, 1961 in a one-day trial. He was sentenced to die in the electric chair on September 22, 1961. Five days prior to his execution NAACP lawyer Donald Hollowell took Cobb's case and argued for a new trial on March 12, 1962. The federal court granted Cobb a new trial based on the issue of the racial composition of the jury. After a series of retrials and reversals, Cobb was sentenced to life in prison, but was eventually released from prison in 1968.

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@ Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection

WSB-TV (Television station : Atlanta, Ga.)

Description

George Lawrence, Solicitor General for Georgia, and Donald Hollowell, NAACP attorney, discuss the opportunity for Preston Cobb, a fifteen-year old African American youth, to receive a new trial. Cobb was tried for the June 1, 1961 murder of Coleman Dumas, a white man on whose property Cobb's family resided. An all-white Jasper County jury convicted Cobb of murder on August 16, 1961 in a one-day trial. He was sentenced to die in the electric chair on September 22, 1961. Five days prior to his execution NAACP lawyer Donald Hollowell took Cobb's case and argued for a new trial on March 12, 1962. The federal court granted Cobb a new trial based on the issue of the racial composition of the jury. After a series of retrials and reversals, Cobb was sentenced to life in prison, but was eventually released from prison in 1968.Title supplied by cataloger.
Type:
Video
Contributors:
Hollowell, Donald L., 1917-2004Lawrence, George Durwood, 1924
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Record Contributed By

Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia