Ed. Note: Welcome to our daily feature Trivia Question of the Day!
In more than two centuries, the U.S. Supreme Court has conducted a criminal trial exactly once — sitting not as an appeals court but as the trial court itself, with the justices weighing the evidence and delivering the verdict. The defendant was a local sheriff. What did he do to earn that singular distinction?
Hint: In 1906, the Court had stayed the execution of a Black man convicted of rape in a rushed Tennessee trial. The night the order reached town, a mob, thanks to the action of the sheriff, made sure the appeal would never be heard.
The post The First And Last Time The Supreme Court Acted As A Trial Court appeared first on Above the Law.