In many lynchings, of both blacks and whites, the illegality of the act is beyond question because mobs broke into jails or other places of incarceration to seize people who were in the custody of the legal system. The mobs sometimes feared that defendants would be acquitted because the evidence in their favor was strong (I wrote about one such lynching in Stokes County, NC, in "The Hairstons") or the mob thought a sentence too light. I believe that Leo Frank was pulled off a train on his way to serve his prison sentence, and given the death penalty by rope. Henry Wiencek