This article was published more than 2 years agoGift ShareNearly 70 years ago, after a series of trials that lasted little more than a week, seven Black men were executed for the rape of a White woman in Martinsville, Va. Now, advocates and descendants of the executed are asking Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) to issue a novel posthumous pardon.The petition does not argue that the men were innocent but contends that the rushed trials and extreme punishment defied any concept of justice.“The Martinsville Seven were not given adequate due process. . . . They were sentenced to death for a...…This article was published more than 2 years agoGift ShareNearly 70 years ago, after a series of trials that lasted little more than a week, seven Black men were executed for the rape of a White woman in Martinsville, Va. Now, advocates and descendants of the executed are asking Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) to issue a novel posthumous pardon.The petition does not argue that the men were innocent but contends that the rushed trials and extreme punishment defied any concept of justice.“The Martinsville Seven were not given adequate due process. . . . They were sentenced to death for a...WW…