Trial of Joseph Spell
1940 trial in Connecticut, US / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The trial of Joseph Spell was a 1940 legal case - State of Connecticut v. Joseph Spell - in which an African-American chauffeur[1] was accused of raping Eleanor Strubing, a wealthy white woman who was his boss.[2] The accusations and trial made sensational headlines. Spell was represented by Samuel Friedman and future US Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall. The case is featured in the 2017 film Marshall.[3]
After 17 hours of questioning Spell confessed to being intimate with Strubing, but (contrary to police accounts) said that he had never confessed to raping her. The trial jury in January of 1941 found him not guilty.