Why was William Offett sentenced to prison? *

A white woman had accused him, a black man, of breaking into her home while she

and her husband were gone.

He admitted to being intimate with a white woman, which was illegal at the time,

regardless of circumstance,

A white woman had accused him, a black man, of breaking into her house and raping

her.

A white woman was raped and mistakenly identified Offett, whom she did not know,

as the culprit.