FLORIDA: Justice

Heads hung in belated remorse, four young Florida white men stood in a Tallahassee courtroom last week to be sentenced for raping a 19-year-old Negro coed seven times at point of knife and shotgun. On the bench sat Circuit Judge W. (for William) May Walker, 54, a snow-haired tree of a man (6 ft. 2 in., 220 lbs.) and a lifelong Floridian, whose love for the South is exceeded only by his dedication to equal justice under the law. “Yours was a horrible and deplorable crime, committed under horrible circumstances,” said the judge. And then he handed down the stiffest sentences possible—considering that the jury had recommended mercy (TIME, June 22): life terms in Raiford State Prison. He was sorry, said Judge Walker, father of two sons, aged 11 and 15, to send any young men off to the penitentiary. But “duty transcends regret, and you are fortunate indeed that the jury recommended mercy.” Had it not, death sentences would have been mandatory.*

One by one, Judge Walker called the defendants by name: Willion (“Ted”) Collinsworth, 23, an illiterate chronic drunk, who cried when his wife Pearlie and two-year-old son rushed up to him before he was sentenced; Patrick Scarborough, 20, orphaned at seven, when his mother was killed in a barroom brawl and his father committed suicide; David Ervin Beagles, 18, a gum-chomping high school senior who held a switchblade knife to the girl’s throat before the assault; Ollio Stoutamire, 16, a sometime juvenile delinquent, who has been raised by assorted relatives since his mother’s death at his birth.

“Have you ever heard of the Supreme Ruler of the Universe?” the judge asked each of them. Puzzled, each replied, “No, sir.” Advised Baptist Walker: “The Supreme Ruler of the Universe is God. He is the one to whom you should direct your appeal for comfort and advice. I commend him to you as one who can be a great benefactor to each of you if you call on him humbly and prayerfully.”

* No white man has ever been executed in Florida for raping a Negro woman. But since 1925, Florida has executed 37 Negroes found guilty of raping white women; four others now sit in the death house, awaiting the electric chair.