Virginia is erecting a memorial plaque to the Martinsville 7, who were posthumously pardoned by Gov. Northam earlier this year. Only one problem: They were guilty. Definitely & unquestionably. They gang-raped Ruby Floyd for hours and left her in a ditch. cardinalnews.org/2021/12/22/sta…
There were eyewitnesses. Ruby Floyd managed to break away from her attackers at one point and ran to the road to beg passersby for help. They brushed her off, but later identified the men who dragged her back into the woods. 
An 11-year-old boy, Charlie Martin, was with Ruby giving her directions to the house she wanted to visit when four men grabbed her off the sidewalk. He later identified them to police.
Every defendant admitted to being present at the gang rape, though some claimed not to have penetrated the victim ("I tried to go to her but I could not get up a hard") or said the victim did not resist ("She didn't push me away").
During the trial, the judge was adamant that race be kept out of it: "It must be tried as though both parties were members of the same race. I will not have it otherwise." The juries were all-white but the grand jury that indicted them was integrated as was the trial jury pool.
The only basis for claiming that these men were treated unfairly is that the trial was hasty (because the evidence was overwhelming) and the death penalty was excessive. Read the news articles about the pardon. They're very vague on what the objection is. nytimes.com/2021/08/31/us/…
Ruby Floyd was gang-raped, urinated on, and left with internal injuries that took months to heal. Honoring the men who did that to her is an insult. (All screengrabs are from Eric W. Rise's "Martinsville Seven: Race, Rape, and Capital Punishment.") /END amazon.com/Martinsville-S…
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