Don King Two Killings Pardoned

In 1954 in Cleveland, Ohio, popular boxing promoter Don King shot Hillary Brown in the back when Brown tried to rob one of King’s gambling houses, and a court ruled the killing justifiable homicide. Later in 1966, King beat and stomped his employee Sam Garrett to death in the street over a $600 debt, and a judge later reduced his second-degree murder conviction to manslaughter.

He served about four years in prison before his release and, in 1983, received a pardon from Ohio Governor Jim Rhodes after supporters such as Jesse Jackson and Coretta Scott King wrote letters on his behalf.

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