Book Review: The three death sentences of clarence henderson: A battle for racial justice at the dawn of the civil rights

• Published date: 01 March 2025
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/07340168221138539
• Author: Anthony Vito
• Date: 01 March 2025
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

been afraid to admit their sexuality in a time when individuals were being persecuted. This book

would be ideal for readers interested in civil rights for LGBTQ persons and homophobic victimiza-

tion from criminal justice practitioners. It could also serve as a textbook for a gender and sexuality,

victimology, or civil rights law course.

ORCID iD

Sydney Flonnoy https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0659-3778

Chris Joyner (2022).

The three death sentences of clarence henderson: A battle for racial justice at the dawn of the civil rights.

Harry N. Abrams, 352pp, ISBN 978-1419756368

Reviewed by: Anthony Vito ,Ball State University, USA

DOI: 10.1177/07340168221138539

Chris Joyner’sThe Three Death Sentences of Clarence Henderson is an investigative piece the

revolving around the death penalty case Clarence Henderson, an African American, accused of

killing Buddy Stevens, a white man. It did not help Henderson that the murder happened in 1950s

West Georgia under Jim Crow laws. The case, which resulted in three trials, provides an in-depth

analysis of rarely covered cases that have not been given the same coverage in American society,

such as Emmet Till or the Scottsboro Boys. This case also included involvement from the

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Communist Party, and future

Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. In the book, Chris Joyner (2022) provides an excellent

description covering the intrigue of this case, “The toxic mix of sex, murder, and race was too much

for a rural Georgia town to absorb”(p. 10).

Throughout this book, Chris Joyner does an excellent job of providing detail on the history of

Carrollton, Georgia (where the murder occurs), the background details on the murder, the three dif-

ferent court trials, and the various courtroom actors, police off‌icers, and forensic experts. The murder

occurred on October 31, 1948, in Carrollton, Georgia. It initially started as a date between Buddy

Stevens and Nan Turner, a white female, then turned to a robbery, and ended in the shooting

death of Stevens. Turner managed to escape during the event. Initially, she reported a Black man

had assaulted her, but later testimony showed her statements were either inaccurate or an outright

lie. Even initial police investigations could not rule out a white suspect. Two months into the inves-

tigation, police charge Henderson with Steven’s murder. However, the only link between Henderson

and the murder was through the purchase of a handgun at a pawnshop. Before even learning of this

detail, off‌icers had interrogated 12, Black men for the murder. They never considered Henderson a

suspect.

The f‌irst trial showed the gross discrimination Henderson faced, especially for a crime involving a

Black man accused of killing a white man and attempting to assault a White female in the Jim Crow

south. Henderson’s defense team consisted of two white men who did nothing to help Henderson.

They did not call witnesses to the stand. They did not provide an alibi for Henderson either. Even

when Turner gave inconsistent testimony, the defense attorneys did not poke holes in her statements.

They also did nothing about the testimony of ballistics expert George Cornett. Cornett’s expertise

should have come into question when he believed Henderson must have f‌iled down the bullets to

f‌it in the .38 revolver, the murder weapon. The f‌irst trial lasted 12 h, and it was no surprise when

the jury found Henderson guilty and sentenced him to death.

110 Criminal Justice Review 50(1)