a question about a big hit

One bit of 1970s cheesy pop music was Vicki Lawrence's hit, "The Night The Lights Went Out in Georgia," an icky tale of faithlessness, revenge and injustice. I love it. It's solid pop music, and it's part of the soundtrack of my youth -- or at least my teenage years. By that I mean, I don't have any memories of hearing it when it was current. But when i was in high school and got my first Walkman* it was on the first cassette that I bought. That cassette was "Top Hits of the '70s, Volume 2," which was sold at Radio Shack. Another thing in the song's favor (as far as I'm concerned) is that it's got such a pleasant sound you'd never realize how dark its subject matter is unless you pay attention to the lyrics.



For the sake of brevity I am assuming that my reader knows the lyrics and not reproducing them here.**


I have a question about this song -- something I've been wondering about for years. In today's world, in the United States, my understanding is that a person convicted of a capital offense has many appeals available before execution. But in this song that doesn't seem to be the case. Here the main character fires his gun to flag down the police, gets mistaken for a murderer tried and hanged all in very short order. It almost sounds like it happens in one day, since the narrator (who committed the murder (two, actually) didn't have a chance to speak up. Maybe it wasn't all the same day, but it couldn't have been a very lengthy process.


Was the process so different in 1970's Georgia that this could have happened?


*Technically, it wasn't a Walkman; it was a Toshiba portable cassette player.


**OK, OK. In case anyone doesn't know the lyrics, here they are, courtesy of lyrics freak. There are some minor mistakes, but they are immaterial and I am not going to try correcting them.


He was on his way home from Candletop.
(He'd)Been two weeks gone and he thought he'd stop
At Webb's and have him a drink 'fore he went home to her.
Andy Wardlow said, "Hello."
And he said "Hi, what's doin', Wo?"
He said, "Sit down, I got some bad news that's gonna hurt."
He said, "I'm your best friend and you know that's right,
But your young bride ain't home tonight.
Since you been gone she's been seein' that aimless boy, Seth."
Well, he got mad 'n' he saw red.
And Andy said, "Boy, don'tcha lose your head,
'Cause to tell ya the truth, I been with her myself."

[Chorus]
That's the night that the lights went out in Georgia.
That's the night that they hung an innocent man.
Well, don't trust your soul to no backwoods Southern lawyer
'Cause the judge in the town's got blood stains on his hands.

Well, Andy got scared and left the bar
(And went) Walkin' on home 'cause he didn't live far.
(You) See, Andy didn't have many friends and he'd just lost him one.
(And) Brother thought his wife must'a left town,
So he went home and finally found
The only thing Papa had left him, and that was a gun.
And he went off to Andy's house,
Slippin' through the backwoods quiet as a mouse--
Came upon some tracks too small for Andy to make.
He looked through the screen at the back-porch door,
And he saw Andy lyin' on the floor
In a puddle of blood. And he started to shake.

Well, the Georgia Patrol was a'makin' their rounds,
So he fired a shot just to flag 'em down,
And a big-bellied sheriff grabbed his gun and said, "Why'd ya do it?"
And the judge said, "Guilty," in a make-believe trial,
Slapped the sheriff on the back with a smile,
And said, "Supper's waitin' at home and I gotta get to it."

[Chorus]

Well, they hung my brother before I could say
That the tracks he saw while on his way
To Andy's house, out back, that night were mine.
And his cheatin' wife had never left town;
And that's one body that'll never be found!
See, little sister don't miss when she aims her gun.

That's the night that the lights went out in Georgia.
Oh-oh-aah
That's the night that they hung an innocent man.
Ah-huh-unh
Well, don't trust your soul to no backwoods Southern lawyer

'Cause the judge in the town's got blood stains on his hands.