Transcript of Testimony, Vol 3. United States of America v. Philip Jackson. April 27, 1927

181pp. Manila cardstock, string bound. Hinge of front and rear boards reinforced with linen tape. Titles/information of proceedings handwritten in blanks on front board. Typescript, pages toned but clean and unmarked. Handwritten information on verdict page, along with signature of Justice Adolph A. Hoehling. On the 29th of May, 1928, a young, Black man named Robert Jackson was put to death in the city of Washington D.C.'s electric chair. Jackson was the first person to be executed in the city via electrocution. He'd been accused of raping a woman named Daisy Welling the previous February on the Capitol grounds. In the aftermath of the crime, Congress adopted a resolution offering $1000 for the capture of the man responsible. Police rounded up a group of men roughly true to her description of her assailant (a light-skinned Black man around thirty years old). The description unfortunately offered little more to go on than those scant details. That didn't stop the police from extracting a confession from Jackson after two days of violent interrogation. Jackson later recanted. He had an alibi for the night and time in question, and a pair of corroborating witnesses. There was also a suggestion that Jackson was "of unsound mind," (his parents were reportedly brother and sister) but the summer of 1927 saw him on trial in the District nonetheless. Justice Adolph Hoehling oversaw the trial. He was Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of D.C., as it was then known. He'd administered (or, re-administered for legal reasons) the oath of office to President Calvin Coolidge in 1923. The trial was brief. Jackson never had a chance. Reading the transcript of his testimony, it's plain that he was in no way able to stand up to questioning from the prosecuting attorney, who in his closing statement, even questioned whether Jackson had served in the military as he claimed. His word alone wasn't to be trusted, the man claimed. "He squirmed and hitched and did everything possible to avoid answering my questions," the prosecutor said. In fact, Jackson did confess difficulty recalling certain details about what happened after his arrest and during his questioning. It was, no doubt, a bewildering and traumatic experience. He did explain that the police brutalized him. He did disavow his confession. And still the jury left to deliberate, only to return in less than an hour with a guilty verdict. Rape was potentially a capital offense in the District at the time, and Hoehling announced the verdict, setting the date and time of Jackson's execution. His attorneys appealed and bought a few months by doing so, but by May of 1928, the appeals were exhausted, and Jackson went to the death chamber. The execution itself was a horror, even by the standards of executions. Six attempts were required before Jackson died. A clergyman who witnessed the execution called it, "the most horrible death he had ever seen a man die." Hoehling resigned, effectively the 31st of December of 1927 and returned to private practice. It's unclear what motivated his resignation. Jackson became a footnote, despite the many questionable details around his arrest, prosecution and execution. Third volume of the transcript, the copy of Mr. Collins, the prosecuting attorney. It contains the entirety of Jackson's testimony, the closing statements and jury information. It is signed by Hoehling on the verdict page.…