Roland v. State

The plaintiff in error was convicted of an assault upon a woman at a late hour of the night on the streets of Memphis, and has appealed in error to this court. He is a negro; the woman is white. He denied his guilt and introduced proof of an alibi and several witnesses to sustain his character. The question was on the identity of the assailant.

The situation was one calculated to excite the strongest passions of the jurors — a negro charged with an assault upon a white woman.

It appears that, in addition to several respectable negroes who testified to the character of the plaintiff in error,…