101:(no white man had ever been sentenced to death in Virginia for rape). But Judge Whittle ruled that because of the brutality of the crime and the findings of guilt that the men's sentences were appropriate. The seven were ultimately executed in 1951. In denying the appeal of one of the 'Martinsville Seven,' Justice Edward W. Hudgins of Virginia's Supreme Court of Appeals ruled that the death penalty "does not depend upon the race of the accused, but on the circumstances, aggravation and enormity of the crime...the law applies to all alike regardless of race or creed."
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Justice Kennon
Whittle was married to the former Mary Holt Spencer, whose sister Blanche married Julian Robertson Sr. of Salisbury, North Carolina. Robertson was a prominent textile company executive, private investor and philanthropist. A third Spencer sister, Margaret, married Dr. John Armstrong
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In the rape of Mrs. Floyd, he said, the severity of the crime demonstrated that the accused showed no mercy. "Francis
Grayson, a man of 37 years of age, saw the four men attacking Mrs. Floyd," Judge Hudgins wrote of the appellant. "Instead of helping her, he left the scene, informed two others of
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for 1940–41. In 1944, he was appointed judge of the
Seventh Judicial Circuit and, in 1951, was elected to the Supreme Court of Appeals. He served on the Supreme Court until he retired on February 1, 1965. He received an honorary LL. D. from Washington and Lee in 1950 and he was a member of
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A Guidebook to
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what was taking place, the three went to the scene, and each in return, ravished Mrs. Floyd. One can hardly conceive of a more atrocious, a more beastly crime."'
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in 1914. Following his graduation
Whittle was admitted to the bar and began practice in Martinsville. Whittle was president of The
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Shackelford, chief surgeon of
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Alerted to the case and its growing controversy, the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (
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from 1901 to 1919. Kennon
Whittle attended elementary school in Martinsville and received an LL. B. from
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Judge
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