Ades, with the assistance of Stanley Levinson, another ILD lawyer, successfully challenged the verdict on the grounds that African Americans were excluded from jury service in Towson. In fact, it was conceded at the trial that no African American had been selected to serve on a jury in Towson in the twenty-six years preceding the Lee trial. In a landmark decision, the Maryland Court of Appeals threw out Lee’s conviction on the grounds that the exclusion of African Americans from jury service in Baltimore County violated Lee’s constitutional right to be tried by an impartial jury of his peers.
