stating they were prepared to convict James "beyond a shadow of doubt." James' attorneys entered a "guilty" plea; a strategy to avoid the death penalty that they believed would result in life imprisonment instead. However, it was reported a life sentence would not be well received in Sangamon County as "feelings run high against the negro" amongst whites who wanted him hanged. The police department noted that, if it were up to them, they would have hanged James "right away." However, it was determined that "the civil docket is so full that it will be impossible to have the case against James docketed before Aug. 4." James made no comment about his predicament, only referring reporters back to his initial statements: Alleged rape of Mabel Hallam On August 14, the Illinois State Journal reported that a "respectable" young married woman had been attacked in the same working-class neighborhood as Clergy Ballard's – the North End. Mabel V. Hallam (née Trees), the 21-year-old white wife of well-known streetcar conductor, William "Earl" Hallam, claimed that on the night of August 12, at her home, at 1153 Fifth Street, shortly before midnight, a black man cut the screen door to the back door of her home, threatened to kill her, then dragged her, naked, from bed out into her garden, where he raped her and beat her unconscious. She alleged that after the violent assault, she leapt over a back fence and sought help from her mother-in-law. Police Chief Morris was awakened in the middle of the night with the news. He assigned the entire police force to the case. George Richardson accused George Richardson was a 36-year-old black, lifetime resident of Springfield. He was from a prominent black family in Springfield; his grandfather had been Abraham Lincoln's barber, and white newspapers cited him having "above the ordinary intelligence." At the time, he was a hod carrier, working on a home with other black builders, on North Fifth Street, near Hallam's home. The police, assigned to look for Hallam's attacker the night before, saw the men working and surmised that the perpetrator was "probably" among the group. The police took the men, changed their clothes and, one by one, delivered them to Hallam's home, where she pointed out Richardson as her attacker: Richardson professed his innocence, maintaining that he was at home, all night, with his wife, Maud, at 1305 East Capitol Avenue.