Sept. 3, 1964 - The New York County grand jury that cleared Police Lieut. Thomas Gilligan of criminal liability this week in the killing of James Powell, a 15-year-old Negro youth, was unanimous in its finding. The incident touched off rioting (pictured) in Harlem and the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn in July.
George S. Schuyler, one of two Negroes on the jury, said today:
“Our decision was unanimous. I did the right thing, and so did the rest of the jury.”
Mr. Schuyler, an associate editor of The Pittsburgh Courier, a Negro newspaper with offices in New York, said of the grand jury’s deliberations:
“We heard everything and we’re more expert on the subject because we were there. I’ve been on juries for the last 20 years, so I think I know what I’m talking about.”
He described as “very conclusive” a round of testimony of “five or six witnesses” that linked the slain youth with a knife and a threat to use the knife.
He said a 15-year-old boy had testified that young Powell had the knife in his hand, and a 15-year-old girl had testified that there was a knife near the boy’s body after he had been shot by Lieut. Gilligan.
“Their testimony was important,” Mr. Schuyler said. “It supported that of many adults.”
Mr. Schuyler, who is 69 years old, was associated with the NAACP from 1937 to 1944. He recently withdrew as the Conservative party candidate against Congressman Adam Clayton Powell in Harlem’s 18th Congressional District.
Mr. Schuyler praised his fellow jurors. “Many of them,” he said, “gave up their vacations to sit through the summer and hear all that testimony.”
The jury held 15 meetings, at which 1,600 pages of testimony were taken from 45 witnesses on the facts concerning the July 16 killing of young Powell in front of a school on East 76th Street.
Support this project at patreon.com/realtime1960s
Comments