A portrait of Tennessee sheriff Joseph F. Shipp. In 1910, he and 8 others were tried by the U.S. Supreme Court for contempt of court for their roles in the lynching of a black man whose conviction was under review. It remains the only criminal trial to be held by the U.S. Supreme Court [543 x 800].

[UNITED STATES v. SHIPP, 214 U.S. 386 (1909)](https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/214/386/)

>No deputies put in an appearance while the mob was at the jail or during the lynching, except Frank Jones, who approached the jail with a prisoner, but upon seeing the mob immediately left with the prisoner, and excepting Matt Galloway, who was seen in the crowd.
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>From the time he reached there, about 6 o’clock, until the mob came, Gibson was the only officer in charge of the jail. But there was much evidence that customarily many deputies were there nightly, and that several were present on the night of the nineteenth until just before the irruption of the mob.
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>Heavy iron chains were sometimes used as additional guards upon circular doors in the jail, such as that leading to Johnson’s corridor. These were locked by the prisoners on the inside. During the trial of Johnson these chains were used on the circular doors. But none were on the circular door leading to Johnson’s cell on the nineteenth. It also appears that Johnson’s cell door was not locked.
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>Winchester rifles which were kept to defend the jail against mob violence were, at the time the mob attacked the jail on the nineteenth, in a show case in the office. These were taken out of the show case by the mob and unloaded.
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>Although Shipp was in the midst or near the members of the mob for about an hour when they were in the jail, he did not seek to obtain information so that he could identify any of them, and he testifies that he does not know any member of the mob.
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>Only one conclusion can be drawn from these facts, all of which are clearly established by the evidence — Shipp not only made the work of the mob easy, but in effect aided and abetted it.