§ 241 (protecting US citizens' Fourteenth Amendment rights from individuals sworn to uphold laws) may be applied only to federal cases and is not available to state governments.

There, the investigators subjected them to intense interrogations, which, "after blows, kicks, threats, and prolonged exposure to a brilliant light," yielded a confession.

Thus, Williams and his accomplices were arrested and charged with a federal crime, 18 USC §§ 241, prohibiting willfully, under color of the laws, statutes, ordinances, regulations and customs of the State of Florida subjecting an inhabitant of the State of Florida, to deprivation of the rights, privileges and immunities secured to him and protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.

One of them, derived from the Civil Rights Act of 1866, designed to "secure to all persons the equal protection of the laws.

Therefore, it was determined that the federal court did not have jurisdiction to prosecute Williams under 18 USC §§ 241 because he was under commission by the State of Florida, not by the US government.