Lynching Ethics: Toward a Theory of Racialized Defenses

Early on the morning of March 21, 1981, a man discovered Michael Donald's mutilated body hanging from a camphor tree on the 100 block of Herndon Avenue in Mobile, Alabama.13That night, members of the United Klans of America, Alabama Realm, burned a cross on the grounds of the Mobile County Courthouse.14An autopsy found that Donald had been beaten, stabbed, strangled, and then "hung up."15In 1983, a Mobile County grand jury indicted Hays, the Exalted Cyclops of the United Klans of America, for capital murder.16At trial, the jury found Hays guilty and recommended life without pa role.17The trial judge rejected the recommendation of the jury and sentenced Hays to death.l sIn 1984, a Mobile County grand jury indicted Cox, also a mem ber of the United Klans of America, for conspiracy to commit mur der.19After impaneling a jury and convening the trial, the trial judge dismissed the indictment and discharged Cox, citing the Ala bama three-year statute of limitations for criminal conspiracy. 2 0 In