Famous Trials: Sheriff Shipp Trial (1907 09)

"I am ready to die. But I never done it. I am going to tell the truth. I am not guilty. I have said all the time that I did not do it, and it is true. I was not there. I know I am going to die and I have no fear to die and I have no fear at all....God bless you all. I am innocent." --The last words of Ed Johnson before he was lynched on the Walnut Street Bridge in Chattanooga on March 19, 1906. Only once in its history has the United States Supreme Court conducted a criminal trial. The trial, taking place in both Tennessee and the District of Columbia in 1907 and 1908, resulted in the conviction of a sheriff, a deputy sheriff, and four members of a Chattanooga lynch mob.