Sarah Williams Patton's Story*I am deeply in debt with Justice Thurgood Marshall, for I owe him my husband. In the year 1938, I met my husband, Edgar Patton, or as everyone calls him, Eddie Patton. In 1947, Eddie was convicted of killing a white man and brought to court. During this time, I found Thurgood Marshall from the NAACP chapter that I belong to to advocate for Patton's conviction. Marshall promptly took up the case, and he tackled it vigorously. Thurgood was always reassuring and caring toward us, even humorous at many times, but he took his work seriously and persuasively argued our case. After several appeals, the Supreme Court eventually granted us certiorari--which is, I believe, the term they used to describe the order in which a higher court reviews a decision of a lower court--and took up the case. Because the lower court jury was composed of all whites, Marshall eloquently asserted that Patton had been denied equal protection under the law as granted by the Fourteenth Amendment. Because of his powerful reasonings, the Supreme Court ruled in our favor 9-0 in the case Edgar Patton v. State of Mississippi. Because the conviction was overturned, my husband was saved from death and I am a happy woman. Thank the Lord Almighty for his benevolent protection on his children and on his people! Thank God our Father for Thurgood Marshall!
Our case with Marshall is probably what sparked him to say Ending racial discrimination in jury selection can be accomplished only by eliminating peremptory challenges entirely. We thank him and are so still thankful to him for standing up for our cause, without anything to gain and everything to lose. *This person (Sarah Williams Patton) is a fictional character but the court case is indeed real--most of the facts described here are indeed accurate--the sources are in the Bibliography section.
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