Biography
Henry Sweet was the younger brother of Detroit physician Ossian Sweet who admitted firing a weapon during the incident in which a white mob member was killed during the September 9, 1925 attack on the Sweet family's newly-purchased home in a previously all-white Detroit neighborhood. The prosecution could not identify who fired the fatal bullet. Tried alone in the second trial beginning April 19, 1926 with Clarence Darrow leading the defense; acquitted by an all-white jury on grounds of self-defense — a landmark verdict establishing that Black Americans had the same right as whites to defend their homes against mob violence.
Michael Hannon's University of Minnesota Law Library history identifies Frank Murphy as the trial judge and Robert M. Toms as prosecuting attorney. Henry admitted firing a weapon, but the prosecution could not identify the gun or shooter responsible for the fatal bullet, which was never found. The first trial ended in a mistrial; Henry's separate trial ended in acquittal. These findings correct the earlier description's definitive attribution of the fatal shot to Henry. They do not establish a new physical release date.
University of Minnesota Law Library, The Sweet Trials (2010), PDF pages 10, 25, 28, 43–44, 62.
