Press Release, Department of Justice

For Immediate Release: file isaac Comband THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1946 s DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE SINATIONAL US SERVICE Attorney General Tom C, Clark today announced that criminal charges have been filed against Lynwood Lanier Shull, Batesburg, South Carolina Chief of Police. Shull is accused of having "beaten and tortured" Isaac Woodard, Jr., Negro veteran residing at 1100 Franklin Avenue, Bronx, New York, last February 12, in violation of a Federal Civil Rights Statute, which prohibits police and other public officials from depriving anyone of rights "secured by the Constitution and the laws of the United States". Woodard is permanently blind as a result of the alleged beating. The mistreatment is said to have occurred after Shull had arrested Woodard in the South Carolina town for allegedly creating a disturbance on a bus on which the latter was returning home after his discharge from the Army earlier that day. Shull is charged with the violation of Woodard's "right to be secure in his person and immune from legal assault and battery" and "the right and privilege not to be beaten and tortured by persons exercising the authority to arrest". The Information containing the charges was filed by United States Attorney Claud N. Sapp, Columbia, South Carolina, in the Federal Court in that city.