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On June 12 the state Board of Pardons did something unprecedented. It granted a pardon to a dead man.
Max Mason was a 21-year-old African-American circus worker on June 14, 1920, when he was accused, along with several co-workers, of raping a young Duluth woman, Irene Tusken. There was little evidence that he participated in the alleged crime.
In fact, there was not much evidence that any crime took place, according to the Minnesota Historical Society.
A doctor examined Tusken shortly after the alleged attack and found no physical evidence of assault. Police were not contacted until hours after the alleged rape occurred and Tusken gave only vague descriptions of her alleged assailants.
On June 15, 1920, three of the accused were lynched by a mob of Duluthians after they overpowered authorities, broke through the jailhouse wall and dragged the men to the street. There they were hanged from a downtown lamp post. Afterwards, grisly postcards of the event were sold as mementos.
Another defendant, William Miller was tried and acquitted. Mason was convicted of rape and sentenced to between seven and 30 years in state prison.
According to his pardon application, after numerous applications, Mason was granted parole in 1925. His discharge order told him to leave the state, go to Decatur, Alabama, and remain out of Minnesota until at least November 1941.
His pardon application says that Mason died in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1942 from heart disease. He was 46. His death certificate listed his occupation as “waiter.” But despite his release, his name was never cleared of his conviction.
“Max Mason had that rape of a woman on his record,” Walz said Wednesday.
The push to issue Mason a posthumous pardon was launched several years ago, the governor said. It is something the state has never done before. Last December, the three-member Minnesota Board of Pardons—Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea—agreed to hear an appeal on his behalf this year, and on Friday they unanimously granted the pardon.
Considering the events of recent weeks, the governor said, “The fierce sense of urgency of rectifying a historical wrong is upon us.”
By granting the pardon, the board members concluded they did have the authority to pardon someone posthumously. Speaking on Thursday afternoon, Walz said he thought the board has that authority.
“I, at this time, have not heard a challenge to that analysis,” he said. “There has been quite a bit of work, quite a bit of research and quite a bit of scholarly work on it. I think we’ve landed.”
You can read full coverage on Mason’s pardon in Minnesota Lawyer on June 18.
On June 15 in Duluth, city leaders planned a ceremony to commemorate the murders of the three men—Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie—who were hanged on that day, 100 years ago.
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