383 U.S. 787 (1966)
In March 1966 the Supreme Court heard direct appeals from the partial dismissal of two indictments returned by the United States Grand Jury for the Southern District of Mississippi against eighteen persons.1 The indictments arose from events that occurred on June 21, 1964, in Neshoba County, Mississippi, and named as defendants Deputy Sheriff Cecil Ray Price, Sheriff Lawrence A. Rainey, Philadelphia Police Patrolman Richard A. Willis, and fifteen private individuals.2
On that date Deputy Sheriff Price detained Michael Henry Schwerner, James Earl Chaney, and Andrew Goodman in the Neshoba County jail in Philadelphia.3 Price released the three men after dark and, together with the other defendants, intercepted their automobile on Highway 19.4 The defendants removed Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman from their vehicle, placed them in an official Neshoba County Sheriff's Office automobile, and transported them to an unpaved road where the three were assaulted, shot, and killed.5 One defendant later moved the bodies to the construction site of an earthen dam approximately five miles southwest of Philadelphia.6
Indictment No. 59 charged all eighteen defendants with a single count of conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. § 241 to injure, oppress, threaten, and intimidate the three victims in the exercise of their Fourteenth Amendment right not to be deprived of life or liberty without due process of law.7 Indictment No. 60 contained four counts: a conspiracy count under 18 U.S.C. § 371 to violate 18 U.S.C. § 242 and three substantive counts charging that the defendants, acting under color of Mississippi law, willfully assaulted, shot, and killed each victim, thereby depriving each of due-process rights.8
The District Court sustained the conspiracy count in No. 60 against all defendants and the substantive counts against the three officers, but dismissed the substantive counts against the fifteen private defendants.9 The court dismissed the entire indictment in No. 59 as to all defendants.10 The United States appealed directly to the Supreme Court from those dismissals.
Whether 18 U.S.C. § 242 applies to private persons jointly engaged with state officials in the deprivation of constitutional rights?11
Section 242 punishes whoever, under color of any law, willfully subjects any inhabitant of any State to the deprivation of any rights secured by the Constitution. Private persons jointly engaged with state officials in the prohibited action are acting under color of law for purposes of the statute. It is enough that the accused is a willful participant in joint activity with the State or its agents.12
Yes. The indictment alleges that Deputy Sheriff Price detained Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman in the Neshoba County jail, released them after dark, and together with the fifteen private defendants intercepted their automobile on Highway 19, removed the victims, placed them in an official sheriff's automobile, transported them to an unpaved road, and assaulted, shot and killed them, with state officers participating in every phase of the venture from the release from jail through the interception, assault and murder.13
The District Court erred in dismissing the substantive counts against the fifteen private defendants; those dismissals are reversed and the case is remanded for trial.14
Whether 18 U.S.C. § 241 reaches conspiracies to injure citizens in the free exercise or enjoyment of rights secured by the Fourteenth Amendment?15
Section 241 makes it a crime if two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any citizen in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States. The language of the statute is plain and unlimited and includes rights or privileges protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.16
Yes. The indictment charges that the defendants conspired to injure, oppress, threaten and intimidate Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman in the free exercise of their right secured by the Fourteenth Amendment not to be deprived of life or liberty without due process of law by persons acting under color of the laws of Mississippi, and specifically alleges that Deputy Sheriff Price while having the victims in custody would release them at a time when he and the other defendants could intercept and threaten, assault, shoot and kill them.17
The District Court erred in dismissing the indictment in No. 59 as to all defendants; the dismissal is reversed and the case is remanded for trial.18