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Gov. Larry Hogan on Saturday issued a full posthumous pardon for 34 Maryland victims of racial lynching between 1854 and 1933, and said the fundamental rights of the slain were violated. The announcement came at a Towson event in honor of Howard Cooper. ( Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
TOWSON, MD — Full posthumous pardons for 34 Maryland victims of racial lynching between 1854 and 1933, were issued Saturday by Gov. Larry Hogan. The announcement came at a Towson event in honor of Howard Cooper, a 15-year old boy who was dragged from the Baltimore County Jail and hanged from a sycamore tree.
Cooper was convicted by an all-white jury of raping Katie Gray, a white teenager, the Baltimore Sun reported, although Gray did not testify she was raped. Cooper was lynched in the early hours of July 13, 1885, before his attorneys could appeal his conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court. His body was left on display as a warning.