5702

No. 6205_
Name Max Mason__
PRISON

STATE OF MINNESOTA

BOARD OF PARDONS

5702
Den 1-23

APPLICATION

To the Board of Pardons

OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA
1. The application of Max Mason No.5702
(Give name under which convicted)
for a pardon
(State whether pardon or commutation is desired)
2. Pleaded guilty on the thirtieth day of July 1921 in the District
Convicted
Court in and for the County of St. Louis of the crime
of Rape.
and imprisoned in the Penetentiary (sic) at Stillwater, Minnesota.
on Aug. 8, 1921 for the term of Ind.-Max 30 years ; and who is
now imprisoned pursuant to such sentence.
3. The name and postoffice address of the trial judge is Hon. L. S. Nelson , Duluth, Minn.
and the prosecuting attorney is Mason M. Forbes, Esq., Duluth, Minn.
4. Applicant’s full and true name is Max Mason
His age is 23 years and his birth-place was Decatur, Alabama
Father’s name Philip Mason Nationality Colored
Mother’s name Letha Mason Nationality Colored
5. I have never been known by any alias except “Sonnyboy”

6. I was never arrested, indicted or convicted of any other offences except Thirty days on work farm, Louisville, Ky. – Fined $10.00 at Pinesville Ky., and Alabama State Prison for Larceny.
7. Applicant’s occupation and residence during the five years next before conviction of the offense for which his is now
serving were as follows: Employed as laborer and with circus.

8. Attach hereto either a transcript of the evidence introduced at the trial or give a brief statement of the facts leading to
conviction of the crime for which you are now serving.

Miss Irene Tuskin and James Sullivan, two young people living in the city of Duluth, Minnesota, claim to have visited the Robinson Shows at that place about 9 o’clock, Monday night, June 14, 920; that while standing upon the show grounds they were seized by six negroes, employes (sic) of the show and carried a distance of about a block where in the darkness Miss Tuskin was raped by four or five of her assailants; that no outcry was made because one of the negroes held a gun at the head of Sullivan; that after they were released the couple walked a few blocks to the Merrit School-house, sat there on the steps and talked for a few minutes, then walked back to the Grand Avenue car line, took a car and rode ten blocks west, then walked three blocks to the young woman’s home, sat on the porch for a while talking. That the young woman went into the house, spoke to her parents but said nothing about the alleged rape and retired for the night. The first report of the alleged rape was made by the young man after he had gone to work. Several of the Negro employes (sic) of the show were brought back to Duluth on the following day and three of them were lynched that night by a mob and hung to an electric light post.
Seven or eight other Negroes were brought to Duluth, among them your petitioner who was indicted and on trial in the District Court at Duluth convicted of raping Irene Tuskin.

9. Your petitioner asks that a pardon or be granted upon the grounds and for the reasons following:
(Pardon or Commutation)

From the testimony offered at the trial it is apparent that the verdict of the jury was due entirely to passion and prejudice; that the evidence was not sufficient to sustain a conviction; that your petitioner is innocent; that he comes squarely within the contemplation of the duties of the Pardon Board in the granting of relief from punishment improperly inflicted through a story which in its entirety is unusual and strikingly improbable and calculated to create bias and dethrone reason in the mind of the average juror to the extent of depriving him of that sane and wise judgment that should actuate the mind of a fair and impartial juror.

Respectfully submitted,

Max Mason
Dated at Stillwater this 21^st day of February , 1924

No. 6205

5702

APPLICATION

For the pardon of
MAX MASON __

Filed on the day of
, A. D. 1922
__
Clerk.

[Handwritten] I approve a Recomm on the [illegible] 3/14/24; [signature illegible] chief

justice; Clifford Cullin