William Henry Hance - Controversy

Controversy

Other issues besides Hance's mental and psychiatric status had created controversy prior to the day of his electrocution, and one—the question of racial bias in the state sentencing jury—veritably exploded afterwards. The Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles had not even proofread its order denying his stay of execution, and conflated it with another document about some other prisoner. The Georgia Supreme Court denied his appeal by only one vote, 4-3.

One of his jurors at his second sentencing (after the first was reversed for prosecutorial misconduct), a white woman named Patricia Lemay, came forward to report that other jurors made racial remarks about Hance such as "just one more sorry nigger that no one would miss" and, if executed, he would be "one less nigger to breed."

There was only one black juror, a 26-year-old woman named Gayle Lewis Daniels. According to Lemay, Daniels was subjected to racial invective in the jury room. According to both Lemay and Daniels herself, Daniels refused to vote for the death penalty. The other jurors ignored her and reported to the judge that they were unanimous. When the jury was polled in the presence of the court, Daniels was by then too frightened to speak up. The other jurors had told her that she could be convicted of perjury if she continued to hold out, since she had testified, during jury selection, that she could vote for the death penalty.

The evidence of Lemay and Daniels outraged many press outlets. Said one newspaper afterwards,

Hance might as well have been lynched, for he was denied due process of law. ... There is compelling evidence that the law was not followed, that Hance's civil rights were violated, that he was a victim of racism and political expediency.

At a law school conference the following year, attorney Ronald J. Tabak stated at some length his opinion that Hance's race contributed to the sentence.