Where do efforts stand today to get justice for SC lynching victim featured in podcast?
After Michael Burgess discovered the story of a young Black man from Lexington who had been lynched more than 130 years ago, he started working on what he could do about it.
Research by the history teacher at River Bluff High School had shown that a solid alibi had existed for 16-year-old Willie Leaphart, who was accused of breaking into a prominent Lexington home and sexually assaulting a young white woman in 1890. But before Leaphart could be acquitted in a courtroom, he was murdered by a mob that broke into the Lexington County jail.
But getting justice for Leaphart has proven harder than Burgess would have thought.
His findings in the 19th-century lynching — one of several in the South Carolina Midlands — were detailed in stories in The State in 2021, and are the subject of the new six-part podcast series “The Wrong Walk Home” from McClatchy.
The story remains one Burgess can’t let go of because he can’t find the missing piece to get justice for Leaphart: a living relative who has standing to file for a pardon from South Carolina’s governor.
“We need a living descendant to file the paperwork for Willie to be pardoned for his conviction, even though he was awaiting a second trial and could be found innocent and acquitted when a lynch mob took his life to prevent correcting this error in justice.”
Leaphart was arrested in 1890, convicted of rape and sentenced to death, largely based on the identification of the young white woman who said she had been attacked. But an appeal to the governor had gotten Leaphart a reprieve, as several witnesses placed him at church at the time the crime took place, and new evidence raised questions about whether the attack took place at all.
But before his rape conviction could be overturned, a mob broke into the jail and killed him, with his rape conviction still on the books. Under South Carolina law, a relative of a deceased convict must seek to have the conviction overturned. That leaves Leaphart in legal limbo, since no living relatives are known to live in the state.
Burgess knows from records at the time that Leaphart had brothers who are believed to have moved to Florida after he was killed. But despite his best efforts, Burgess has not been able to track down any living relatives Leaphart may have today.
He even got in touch with a genealogist with the (Un)known Project, a group that uses genetics to identify the families living today of people buried in graves from the era of slavery. They traced people who may be extended members of the Leaphart family, but Burgess was either unable to get in touch with them, or when he did they had no knowledge of Willie Leaphart or any family connections they might have to him.
When Burgess managed to get one woman on the phone and explain why he was calling, “She told me, ‘Don’t call me again, I don’t know who you are, this is some kind of scam,’ and she hung up on me,” he said.
“So the important part is someone listening to this (podcast) heard this as part of their family history, and they can reach out and right this wrong,” he said.
Burgess said Leaphart’s story got a surge of attention after the initial stories about him were published. The history teacher gave a number of presentations about his findings, including one to the S.C. House Democratic Caucus, where lawmakers promised to help get Leaphart exonerated.
He also contacted the governor’s office to inquire about getting a pardon for Leaphart, but was told even a case this old would have to go through the formal appeal process, with the same standard of evidence.
“It’s not as simple as producing the evidence, letting the attorney general or the governor examine the evidence that was examined in 1890 to grant a reprieve awaiting a second trial, and using the levers of state government to pardon this young man as a symbol of racial healing in this state.
“It has to roll through the probation, pardon and parole board, follow the same process, literally like you’re seeking a pardon for someone alive, and if they have passed away you need a living descendant who can prove the connection, and that would have to come through (Leaphart’s) brothers.”
Burgess also hopes to locate Leaphart’s long-lost grave. After his murder, Leaphart was buried in the African-American potter’s field, which Burgess believes was on an undeveloped site off of Old Cherokee Road between the Carroll Campbell Place and a water treatment plant. A woman who lived at a house that long stood in the area once wrote that she could see the graveyard from her porch.
Having uncovered so much evidence about Leaphart’s case and brought so much attention to it, he feels a commitment to seeing Leaphart’s story brought to a conclusion — with a legal exoneration.
“We can’t hold his killers accountable, we can’t undo the lynching, but we can remove the scar from the name of this 16-year-old for a crime he didn’t commit,” he said.
Burgess will discuss Leaphart’s case with The State and a panel of others featured on “The Wrong Walk Home” podcast at River Bluff High School at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 5.
“The Wrong Walk Home” podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio and YouTube Music.
