Atlanta Daily World

INGRAM PAROLE TO BE SOUGHT SOON

Plans are being made to apply for a parole for Mrs. Rose Lee Ingram, who has been in prison since 1943, when she was accused of taking part in the corn field laying of a white sharecropper, when the animal wandered into his cornfield. They further declared that the killing was in self defense after the sharecropper, resenting their intervention, attacked Mrs. Ingram.

Attorney Austin T. Walden will make application in August, the World learned yesterday. It is felt that Mrs. Ingram, now 47, has become eligible for parole under Georgia penal code. The first application was turned down last year.

SERIES OF EVENTS

The Georgia mother was tried along with her sons, Wallace and Sammy Lee, both teenagers at the time of the slaying, with the Schley County killing of John Ethron Stratford. The trio became international cause celebres during a swift series of events which won for them life sentences after they had been convicted to die by electrocution.

The Ingrams maintained Stratford took a rifle after their mule

when the animal wandered into his cornfield. They further declared that the killing was in self defense after the sharecropper, resenting their intervention, attacked Mrs. Ingram.

PILGRIMAGES OF WOMEN

The conviction of the Ingrams brought protests from all over the world. There have been pilgrimages, each year by women's groups to Atlanta with vocal pleas being made to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles. Each plea has been turned down, with the board holding Mrs. Ingram would have to remained in prison at least until she has served the minimum sen-

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Ingram Parole

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sentence required by law.

Georgia law until last year required persons convicted of life sentences to serve a minimum of seven years before names could be brought before the board of pardons and paroles. This would not necessarily mean a parole would be granted. A new law now requires a minimum of 14 years in prison before becoming eligible for parole consideration. But it is believed that persons convicted under the former code may be governed by its requirements.

Mr. Walden appeared before the board several times in behalf of the Ingrams.

SOCIAL SITUATION

On January 14, 1952 he urged the board to make an exception from the establishment rule "to reverse the social situation" of the trio. He questioned whether they would have received the same sentences if they had been white and the alleged victim a Negro.

The board, however, held that there were two separate encounters between the sharecropper and the Ingrams. It ruled that the Ingrams had "successfully resisted the deceased" in the first, and that the white farmer "broke away and retreated 141 steps, was overtaken and beaten to death."

This final action was labelled "unnecessary". and made it proper for the jury to find them guilty of murder. The board then refrained from taking further action, except in the discovery of new evidence.