Despite the undisputed confession, the all-white jury acquitted the defendants of all charges on May 21, 1947, and the judge ordered them released. Some Greenville leaders cited the trial as progress in Southern race relations: “This was the first time that South Carolina has brought mass murder charges against alleged lynchers. This jury acquitted them. If there should be another case, perhaps we may get a mistrial with a hung jury. Eventually, the south may return convictions.”
In 1948, when Mr. Earle’s mother attempted to collect under a state law ordering counties to pay $2,000 to the family of a lynching victim, her claim was denied on the grounds that, due to the acquittals, there was no proof her son had been lynched. In 2010, a historical marker was erected near the site of Willie Earle’s murder.
Some of the 28 men acquitted in the lynching of Willie Earle celebrate in the courtroom in Greenville, South Carolina, following the jury’s verdict on May 21, 1947.