When did Homer Plessy plead guilty?

Answer 1

Homer Plessy, the Petitioner in the landmark US Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson, (1896), was arrested on June 7, 1892 for refusing to remove himself from a "whites only" train car on the East Louisiana Railroad, in violation of Louisiana's Separate Car Act of 1890. Act 111 required passengers to be separated by race and Plessy, who appeared white, was one-eighth African-American. When the conductor asked Plessy to declare his race, Plessy responded that he was "colored." He was promptly arrested and taken to jail in New Orleans, Orleans Parish.

Plessy was held at the jail overnight, then processed and released on bail June 8, 1892, after waiving his right to see a judge.

On October 28, 1892, Homer Plessy and his attorney, John C. Walker, appeared before Judge John Ferguson in the Criminal District Court for Orleans Parish. Plessy refused to enter a plea, arguing instead that the Separate Car Act was null and void because it violated his constitutional rights under the 13th and 14th Amendments. He was found guilty without entering a plea.

Plessy's attorney then appealed and filed for a writ of prohibition (an order from a higher court to a lower court preventing the court from exercising its jurisdiction) in the Criminal Court of Appeals, then in the Louisiana Supreme Court, and finally in the Supreme Court of the United States.

According to a New Orleans arrest warrant, Homer Plessy didn't enter a "guilty" plea until January 11, 1897, more than six months after his case had been decided by the US Supreme Court. Plessy paid a $25 fine, but was not jailed.