User:Trident13/WKirtley

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William W. "Bill" Kirtley (born circa 1880 [1]; died circa 1965) was a Kentucky criminal lawyer.

Kirtley was part of the defence team for Rainey Bethea, the last person to be publicly hanged in the United States. Mistakes in executing the hanging and the surrounding media circus contributed to the end of public executions in the United States.

Kirtley was born in to a well to do family with southern roots, who had established themselves in Kentucky in the 19th century. The family can trace their roots today through to the Kirtley Bank and Trust Co., as well as a number of practicing lawyers.

Contents

[edit] Background to the Bethea trial

By the time of the Bethea trial, Bill Kirtley was an experienced criminal lawyer and as the oldest and most experienced lawyer, he should have led the defence team - but the presiding judge insisted that his son led the team. As was common for the time, almost all southern lawyers were white - but adding further to the mix, was that Kirtley had earlier defended the Ku Klux Klan [1]. Lawyers at the time were nearly all white, and were influenced at least to a certain degree by the passions and prejudices of the community at large [2]

[edit] Bethea trial

Their clients were often moved long distances away to protect them from the mob. If counsel wished to interview their client before trial day, they had to travel a long distance at their own expense. See, e.g., Perry T. Ryan, The Last Public Execution in America, (1992), Chapter 13. The presence of the mob doubtless had a chilling effect on even the most able, locally prominent, and courageous trial counsel. Counsel also often had many barriers to overcome in communication with the client. For example, Rainey Bethea, who was hanged for rape in Owensboro on August 14, 1936, had a very able Owensboro lawyer, William W. Kirtley, as his trial counsel. Kirtley, however, at one point in his career, had been the lawyer for the local Ku Klux Klan. See Jackson v. Ku Klux Klan, 231 Ky. 370, 21 S.W.2d 477 (1929). Lawyers, who until fairly recent times, were nearly all white, were influenced at least to a certain degree by the passions and prejudices of the community at large [3]

[edit] Input

  • The judge knew that Bethea was not able to employ counsel, so he appointed four Owensboro lawyers to represent him throughout the legal proceedings which would follow. The four attorneys were William L. Wilson, the judge's twenty-three-year-old son; William W. "Bill" Kirtley; Carroll Byron; and C. W. Wells, Jr. William Wilson represented the defendant only because his father ordered him to do it. In modern court procedure, it would be an unethical practice for a judge to preside at a trial in which his son was an attorney representing one of the parties, due to the appearance of impropriety that this would have. William W. "Bill" Kirtley was an experienced criminal trial lawyer. He was the oldest of the three attorneys, and acted as the leader of the four. Carroll Byron was not experienced as a criminal trial lawyer. He and William Wilson were about the same age. C. W. Wells, Jr., was about three years older than Byron or Wilson [4]
  • Before the trial, William W. "Bill" Kirtley and William Wilson, at their own expense, drove to the Jefferson County Jail to interview Bethea, in an attempt to fashion a defense, but their client ultimately proved to be uncooperative. Bethea told Kirtley that he had signed one confession because he was threatened with a black jack and another confession because he was "doped." Bethea insisted on pleading not guilty at trial, but the various inconsistencies in his version of the facts produced frustration for the lawyers. Kirtley decided to move the court for a change of venue, which meant that he wanted the trial to be conducted in another county. To support a motion for a change of venue, the attorneys were required to present affidavits signed by two people who were willing to state that the defendant could not obtain a fair trial due to excessive publicity. Two people were located who signed affidavits, but the two later tore up their statements, leaving counsel for the defense with nothing upon which to base their motion. Bethea was not helpful to his attorneys [5]
  • The fourth criticism is that Bethea's attorneys should have done more to protect him before and during the trial. Bethea was represented by four Owensboro attorneys. Bill Kirtley was an experienced criminal defense lawyer who led the other three in their efforts to save Bethea. Bethea's attorneys, who were appointed by court order and who received no compensation for their services, conducted an exhaustive search for evidence prior to the trial. Kirtley and William Wilson, at their own expense, journeyed to Louisville to interview Bethea and followed up on everything he told them. They even prepared affidavits to request that the trial be moved to some other county due to pretrial publicity. Only minutes before the trial began, however, Bethea told them that he wished to plead guilty. Although a guilty verdict was unavoidable under these circumstances, Bethea's attorneys might have made a plea for mercy to the jury during the closing argument stage of the proceedings. That a man who had murdered, raped, and robbed a helpless seventy-year-old widow would receive the death penalty in 1936 was almost a foregone conclusion. It is indisputable that people received death sentences for less outrageous conduct. At first blush, it might appear that Bethea had nothing to lose at that point. However, it would not have been unreasonable that his counsel believed a plea for mercy might have had an adverse impact on the jury. It is quite plausible that his attorneys were concerned that a plea for mercy might actually inflame the jury, thereby assuring his death on the scaffold. Considering the attitudes toward crime in 1936, Bethea was certainly not in the best position to receive mercy. His lawyers no doubt knew that, where a defendant sits silently with no defense whatever, there was some hope that the jurors might have compassion for him and give a lighter sentence. Attorneys certainly must make various strategic decisions during a trial, and if this was the strategy of Bethea's attorneys, they cannot be faulted. It simply is not fair to impose modern standards of jurisprudence on attorneys of 1936 [6]
  • William W. Kirtley, one of Bethea's trial attorneys, testified that Bethea had told him he had signed one confession because he was threatened with a black jack and another confession because he was "doped." He said that Bethea had insisted to plead not guilty at trial but that on the morning of the trial in Owensboro, Bethea had told him that he wanted to plead guilty. Kirtley also testified that Bethea pled guilty "of his own volition." Kirtley stated that, at the conclusion of the Commonwealth's case, he asked Bethea whether he wanted to testify, but Bethea refused. Judge Hamilton asked Kirtley why a motion for a change of venue had been abandoned. Kirtley replied that none was necessary because Bethea had pled guilty. Kirtley said that Bethea was taken to the Jefferson County Jail for safe keeping after his arrest because of rumors of mob violence at Owensboro, but he further remarked that he now thought, "it would have been better for Bethea if he had been left in Owensboro." At this point, two of Bethea's lawyers could take no more of Kirtley's testimony and demanded that Kirtley explain. Kirtley rather humorously replied, "Well, if he had been kept there he would not have been bothered with you lawyers." Following Bill Kirtley's testimony, William Wilson, the son of Judge Wilson, stated that Bethea had acknowledged that he had committed the crime and that he had implicated another black man, Bill Mitchell, as an accomplice. Daviess Circuit Judge George S. Wilson testified next, stating that he believed that Bethea's lawyers had adequately performed their duties. One of Bethea's lawyers pointed out that his court-appointed attorneys were appointed only three days before the trial. Judge Wilson retorted that this was sufficient time where the defendant had pled guilty. One of Bethea's attorneys then pointed out that Bethea had not pled guilty at the time the court-appointed lawyers were appointed. He asked Judge Wilson whether this would have been sufficient time if the plea had been not guilty. Judge Wilson replied, "Absolutely not if the man has any defense at all." Judge Wilson said if the plea had been not guilty, he would have expected defense counsel to have moved for a continuance [7]
  • Their clients were often moved long distances away to protect them from the mob. If counsel wished to interview their client before trial day, they had to travel a long distance at their own expense. See, e.g., Perry T. Ryan, The Last Public Execution in America, (1992), Chapter 13. The presence of the mob doubtless had a chilling effect on even the most able, locally prominent, and courageous trial counsel. Counsel also often had many barriers to overcome in communication with the client. For example, Rainey Bethea, who was hanged for rape in Owensboro on August 14, 1936, had a very able Owensboro lawyer, William W. Kirtley, as his trial counsel. Kirtley, however, at one point in his career, had been the lawyer for the local Ku Klux Klan. See Jackson v. Ku Klux Klan, 231 Ky. 370, 21 S.W.2d 477 (1929). Lawyers, who until fairly recent times, were nearly all white, were influenced at least to a certain degree by the passions and prejudices of the community at large [8]

[edit] References

  1. ^  - Perry T. Ryan (1992). The Last Public Execution In America. ISBN 0-09625504-5-0.
  2. ^  - "Word for Word; The Last Hanging There Was a Reason They Outlawed Public Executions". New York Times. (May 6, 2001)
  3. ^  - "10,000 See Hanging of Kentucky Negro". New York Times. (August 15, 1936)
  4. ^  - Jackson v. Ku Klux Klan, 231 Ky. 370, 21 S.W.2d 477 (1929).


  1. ^ http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?rank=0&gsfn=william&gsln=kirtley&sx=&f12=Kentucky&f4=&f7=&f15=&rg_81004011__date=&rs_81004011__date=0&f18=&f14=&_8000C002=&_80008002=&_80018002=&f10=&f16=&gskw=&prox=1&db=1930usfedcen&ti=0&ti.si=0&gl=&gss=IMAGE&gst=&so=3
  2. ^ http://dpa.ky.gov/library/advocate/pdf/2003/adv092003.pdf
  3. ^ http://dpa.ky.gov/library/advocate/pdf/2003/adv092003.pdf
  4. ^ http://www.geocities.com/lastpublichang/Chapter11.htm
  5. ^ http://www.geocities.com/lastpublichang/Chapter13.htm
  6. ^ http://www.geocities.com/lastpublichang/Epilogue.htm
  7. ^ http://www.geocities.com/lastpublichang/Chapter20.htm
  8. ^ http://dpa.ky.gov/library/advocate/pdf/2003/adv092003.pdf