Righting wrongs through posthumous pardons: Max Mason, the Duluth Lynchings and lessons for the future

On June 12, 2020, just three days shy of the 100th anniversary of the infamous lynchings of three African-Americans in Duluth, Minnesota, and less than three weeks after the brutal murder of George Floyd at the hands (and knees) of Minneapolis police officers, the Minnesota Board of Pardons granted the state’s first-ever posthumous pardon. It went to the one individual convicted of the trumped-up charges of rape that had resulted in the lynchings a century earlier.

In granting a posthumous pardon to Max Mason, Minnesota joined the growing list of jurisdictions that have turned to this historically-rare remedy as a means of redressing injustices—most commonly racial—of the past. This Article, based in large part on the petition submitted to the Minnesota Board of Pardons, explores the historical backdrop of the Duluth Lynchings and the wrongful conviction of Mr. Mason, the evolution of posthumous pardons, and discusses how posthumous pardons may in the future play a more prominent role in bending the arc of the moral universe towards justice.

Read the full University of St. Thomas Law Journal article, "Righting wrongs through posthumous pardons: Max Mason, the Duluth Lynchings and lessons for the future."