Biography
John Downer was a Black defendant arrested in Elberton,Georgia in May1931 on a rape accusation. He was indicted May25 and convicted and sentenced to death May26 amid a hostile armed crowd. Attorney A.T.Walden sought habeas corpus two days before the planned June13,1931 execution. The Daily Worker of December22,1932 reports that federal Judge Bascom S.Deaver granted a new trial because Downer had been denied counsel; December23 was set for signing a discharge of the sentence, while prosecutor A.S.Skelton planned a new arrest warrant and trial. The scheduled discharge is not evidence of actual release, and the later outcome is unestablished.
Labor Defender, April 1934: The April issue reports John Downer of Georgia among those executed on March 16 after two trials on a rape accusation, and names A. T. Walden as defense lawyer. Its criticism of the defense is attributed advocacy. The report supplies a completed execution claim beyond the earlier new-trial record; March 16, 1934 is proposed for independent endpoint review rather than treated as a bail release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1934/v10n04-apr-1934-orig-LD.pdf#page=22
The April 1934 Labor Defender reports that John Downer of Georgia was among those executed on March 16, and its concluding paragraph again refers to his electrocution. This supplies the completed March 16, 1934 execution outcome after the earlier reprieve and two trials, resolving the previously unknown later outcome. The article’s attacks on the NAACP defense are the publication’s allegations. A prior reprieve discussed in the same paragraph is not a later release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1934/v10n04-apr-1934-orig-LD.pdf#page=22
