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The Elaine Twelve: Moore Defendants

The 1919 Elaine Massacre led to twelve black men receiving death sentences for their alleged role in events. Little Rock black attorney Scipio Africanus Jones and white attorney George C. Murphy appealed their convictions. The Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed the sentences of the six men known as the Moore defendants—Frank Moore, brothers Frank and Ed Hicks, J. E. Knox, Ed Coleman, and Paul Hall. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that there had been errors in the handling of the trials of the men, and the case paved the way for federal courts to hear and examine evidence in state criminal cases. Scipio Jones arranged the release of the six men with governor Thomas McRae: they pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and McRae granted them indefinite furloughs from the Arkansas State Penitentiary