Biography
Thomas Wansley was a Black teenager arrested in 1962 in Lynchburg, Virginia at the age of 17 on a rape charge — a prosecution that became a national cause célèbre against the racially discriminatory use of the rape charge and the death penalty. Originally sentenced to death as a teenager, he was later resentenced to a life term. His conviction was overturned and he was released on bond in January 1973, but Virginia Governor Linwood Holton denied him a pardon — the Lynchburg prosecutor, Royston Jester, having called Wansley "a discredit to his race" — despite petitions bearing 15,000 signatures and the support of some 20 national human-rights organizations. Documented in The Black Panther (January 19, 1974).
The Black Panther reported on February 2, 1974 that Wansley, freed on bond in January 1973 after a federal ruling overturned his conviction, was returned to prison in mid-November 1973 when a U.S. Court of Appeals reversed that ruling. Supporters visited him at a prison camp in Chesterfield County, Virginia, after Governor Linwood Holton denied a pardon. This resumed imprisonment is separate from the earlier custody period ending January 17, 1973; the reviewed article does not establish the later physical release date.
Original contemporary source 1 ; Original contemporary source 2.
In its October 22, 1977 issue, The Black Panther reported a separate September 3 arrest in Richmond after Thomas C. Wansley’s car broke down. Police charged him with possession of burglary tools and intent to commit grand larceny. The report states that he was jailed and that Judge Robert W. Duling dismissed the charges for lack of evidence. Friends raised bond, but the account does not establish his physical release date.
The Black Panther, October 22, 1977, volume XVII no. 18, PDF page 11.
The June 1974 report says the Supreme Court declined review of Wansley’s conviction while he remained imprisoned at Virginia State Farm, Northside.
