The Oklahoma Bar Journal May 2023

THE TRIAL The most illuminating insights about the trial of Lyons, outside of the transcript, come from Marshall’s dispatches back to the NAACP headquarters in correspondence with Walter White, the organiza tion’s chief executive. The antique practices of the justice system might shock modern lawyers. With so many from the jury pool declaring that they already had firm views on the case, prejudice or some other conflict of interest, Judge George R. Childers was contemplating order ing the county attorney to go out into the community in real time to round up more potential jurors free style. 20 Marshall later wrote that he and his co-counsel, Stanley Belden, withheld some of their challenges during voir dire simply to avoid a circumstance that would have enabled the prosecutor to hand pick his own jury pool from “his friends, relatives, etc.” 21 The defense strategy was one of psychological stress. Belden, a white attorney with a long history of litigation for civil rights and social justice causes in Oklahoma, would examine the prosecution’s witnesses, but when it came time for the presentation of the defense, Marshall would take the lead on the suspicion that Lyons’ assail ants might make missteps when being put in the unusual position of being vigorously questioned by a Black lawyer. In Marshall’s words, “We figured they would resent being questioned by a Negro and would get angry and this would help us out.” 22 CLIMACTIC REVELATIONS The facts drawn out by the defense at trial showed that Lyons had been tortured into confess ing, with at least one confession

The Choctaw County Courthouse in Hugo. Courtesy Oklahoma Historical Society.

happening in the midst of present duress and the final confessions made with at least the linger ing threat of further violence. 23 In the hours preceding the first purported confession, Lyons was transported by authorities to the county prosecutor’s office at the Hugo courthouse, whereupon he was hit with a “blackjack” repeatedly on the back of the head and neck en route. 24 According to Lyons’ own testimony, cor roborated by witnesses, he was later handcuffed to a chair and surrounded by 12 men, including Cheatwood, who proceeded to threaten the use of “red hot irons” if Lyons did not confess. 25 With this threat failing to produce the desired result, Cheatwood pro ceeded to beat Lyons for a number of hours. 26 Eventually, with physi cal violence not bringing about a confession, Cheatwood and the county sheriff brought out a pan containing the charred victim’s remains and placed it in Lyons’ lap. 27 Lyons stated at trial that he confessed, around 2:30 a.m., sign ing a document that had already

been written out for him, “[b]ecause I didn’t want to be tortured any more, and because I couldn’t stand any more of the beating.” 28 At trial, Cheatwood denied using any violence, but the testimony from witnesses did not bear this out. In an electrifying dialogue, Marshall exposed Cheatwood for witness tampering in open court. Ms. Leslie Skeen, a bookkeeper at the nearby Webb Hotel, testified that Cheatwood asked her for help finding his blackjack so he could show it off to hotel guests at the time. When Skeen took the stand to testify to this, Marshall asked, “Did Cheatwood, last night, sug gest that you forget what he said to you in the hotel lobby on the former occasion?” Skeen, clearly not buckling under the pressure of the governor’s special investigator, replied, “Yes ... I told him I hadn’t forgotten it and to me it would be telling a lie if I had.” Even the family of the victims, including the father and sister-in law of Marie Rogers, testified that Cheatwood had bragged to them prior to trial that he had “beat

Statements or opinions expressed in the Oklahoma Bar Journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Oklahoma Bar Association, its officers, Board of Governors, Board of Editors or staff.

MAY 2023 | 9

THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL