Giles-Johnson Defense Committee records
Collection
0090-MDHC
The Giles-Johnson Defense Committee was a volunteer group of Montgomery County citizens working for the defense of James and John Giles, and Joseph Johnson, three black men arrested on charges of rape in 1961. The collection includes correspondence, reports, newsletters, fact sheets, legal briefs, and statements of the committee relating to the arrest, imprisonment, trials, defense, and release of Johnson and the Giles brothers.
This collection is open for research.
Photocopies or digital surrogates may be provided in accordance with Special Collections and University Archives duplication policy.
Copyright resides with the creators of the documents or their heirs unless otherwise specified. It is the researcher's responsibility to secure permission to publish materials from the appropriate copyright holder.
Archival materials may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal and/or state right to privacy laws or other regulations. While we make a good faith effort to identify and remove such materials, some may be missed during our processing. If a researcher finds sensitive personal information in a collection, please bring it to the attention of the reading room staff.
8.50 Linear Feet
English
TheGiles-Johnson Defense Committee records span the years 1962-1971. The bulk of the materials covers 1962 to 1968. The files include correspondence, reports, legal documents, articles, newspaper clippings, photographs, an audio tape, working papers, book manuscripts, publications, and research materials relating to the defense of the Giles brothers and Joseph Johnson.
Topics covered in the records include racism, poverty, Maryland law, rape, capital punishment, social justice, and the character of judges, jurors, prosecutors, and police officials. People who played a prominent role in this case include Dr. Harold A. Knapp, a physicist at the Department of Defense who was very active on the committee; Mrs. Howard Ross, the chair of the committee; the defendants and their attorneys, and the plaintiffs and their legal counsel.
The Giles-Johnson Defense Committee was established in July 1962 by Mrs. Howard Ross and sixty other Maryland residents to aid three young black men, James Giles, John Giles, and Joseph Johnson, who were sentenced to death for allegedly raping a white teenage girl, Joyce Roberts, in 1961. This case outraged the community because of the severity of the sentence, the suppression of evidence by the state, and other injustices perceived as racially motivated. Due to the efforts of the committee, Governor J. Millard Tawes commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment in October 1963. The Giles brothers were retried in 1967 and the charges were dropped. Joseph Johnson was eventually pardoned by Governor Spiro T. Agnew in 1968. John Giles was shot and killed in Baltimore in 1971.
This landmark case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. As a result of the committee's exertions, the Maryland law which limits motions for trials based on newly-discovered evidence to three days after sentencing, was changed.
This collection is organized as ten series:
The Giles-Johnson Defense Committee records were donated to the University of Maryland College Park Libraries by Franz Alt in 1971 and by Samuel Legg in 1974.
Ten series were created from the records of the Giles-Johnson Defense Committee. Reports bound by staples and metal clasps were removed from the original binding. All materials were placed in acid-free folders and boxes. All paper clips were replaced by plastic clips. The audio tape was transferred to the tape collection and the photographs were separated and placed in the photograph collection.
Part of the Special Collections and University Archives