Killing of Clarence Horatious Pickett

Clarence Pickett was an African American preacher who also worked part-time as an advertising salesman for The Columbus World in Columbus, Georgia. He had a history of alcoholism and had previously been incarcerated at the Milledgeville Asylum, with one condition of his release being abstention from alcohol. On the morning of December 21, 1957, Pickett had been drinking, and by that afternoon he became belligerent with his supervisor at The Columbus World while collecting his paycheck. Two police officers who observed the incident chose not to arrest him, instead instructing him to go home. Later that evening, after causing a disturbance at a grocery store, Pickett was arrested for being "plain drunk" and taken to the city jail.

At the jail, Pickett swore at the officer on duty, Joseph Cameron, and offered him a bribe for early release. Cameron entered Pickett's cell and beat him with a baton, continuing even after Pickett stopped resisting, until Pickett lost consciousness. Cellmates later testified that Pickett had not fought back and had not appeared intoxicated upon arrival. Before his release on the afternoon of December 22, Pickett told cellmates he was in severe abdominal pain. Once home, his family called for medical help, but the examining doctor dismissed the severity of his injuries and suggested he was faking illness, disregarding Pickett's attempts to explain what had happened. Pickett died at home on December 23, 1957.

An autopsy attributed Pickett's death to blood poisoning and injuries to his intestines, and a coroner's jury determined these injuries resulted from a blow or blows struck by Cameron. Cameron, who had only recently been assigned to jail duty in June 1957 after three years as an officer, was charged in 1958, pleaded not guilty, and was released on a $5,000 bond. His trial took place on April 23, 1958. Cellmates testified to witnessing the beating, while Cameron claimed Pickett had assaulted him and that he acted in self-defense. Testimony indicated Cameron had dismissively remarked that "the Negro waited too long to say anything about it" after learning of Pickett's death. The defense also attempted, unsuccessfully, to attribute the beating to another officer and then to Pickett's supervisor, but eyewitnesses refuted both claims. After roughly ninety minutes of deliberation, the all-white jury found Cameron not guilty.

Cameron was reinstated to the police force with back pay on May 12, 1958, despite reportedly expressing some hesitation about returning. He continued serving as an officer until his death from illness on September 29, 1968. In 2008, the FBI reopened an investigation into Pickett's death as part of a broader review of civil-rights-era cold cases. The case was closed on April 7, 2010, with the FBI concluding that prosecution was no longer possible because Cameron had died and the statute of limitations had expired.