PROHIBITION: Leggers’ Escape

Byrum Gibson and Claude Chambers, prior to Repeal, were indicted in North Carolina for conspiracy to violate the Volstead Act. Both had been convicted of similar charges before. Chambers had even pleaded guilty to the present charge but had not been sentenced. After Repeal a Federal Judge in North Carolina dismissed the indictments. The Government appealed to the Supreme Court. Last week Chief Justice Hughes handed down a unanimous decision freeing not only ‘Leggers Gibson and Chambers but also some 13,000 others indicted under a law that vanished from the statute books Dec. 5. The Supreme Court held that the courts had no power to try men after Repeal who might have committed, before Repeal, what was then a crime.

The decision did not release other thousands now in jail serving Federal Prohibition sentences imposed before Repeal.