WITH JUSTICE FOR SOME. Lise Pearlman

coincidence, Sheriff Shipp was on the same three-hour train to Knoxville as Parden, but traveling in first class the sheriff never saw the Chattanooga lawyer in the “coloreds” car. Shipp was planning to transfer Johnson back to Chattanooga, where he would likely be at the mercy of another lynch mob. Not in any particular hurry, Shipp ran other errands and spent time with old friends before he reached the prison. By the time he arrived, Shipp was shocked to find a marshal with an order signed by Judge Clark keeping Johnson in Knoxville pending a hearing on March 10.

      Shipp brought the judge and prosecutor to the unprecedented hearing, which lasted into the night. At lunch-time on March 11, Judge Clark issued his ruling on the merits of Parden’s petition. The judge did not grant the requested relief, but issued a ten-day stay of Johnson’s execution to allow for United States Supreme Court review. The Chattanooga officials immediately questioned Judge Clark’s authority to change the execution date. Judge McReynolds suggested they might disregard the federal judge’s ruling and go ahead with the execution on its prior schedule. Instead, the group asked Tennessee’s Governor William Cox to intercede. He postponed Johnson’s execution just one week, to March 20.