 Ed Johnson, a black man, had been convicted in Hamilton County, Tennessee, of the rape of a white woman on February 11, 1906 and sentenced to death.On March 3, 1906, Johnson filed a writ of "habeas corpus", alleging that his constitutional rights had been violated.Specifically, he alleged that all blacks had been systematically excluded from both the grand jury considering the original indictment against him and the trial jury considering his case.