In DeKalb County in 1960, Martin Luther King Jr. was pulled over while driving writer Lillian Smith to Emory Hospital in a car with an expired tag, later convicted of driving without a Georgia license, and placed on probation after paying a fine. After he joined Atlanta student sit-ins against segregated public accommodations and was arrested at Rich's department store on October 19, Judge J. Oscar Mitchell ruled that he had violated probation and sentenced him on October 25 to four months of hard labor, denying bond and sending him to jail and then to Reidsville State Prison. Segregationists had hoped to use the case to intimidate the civil rights movement, but King's jailing instead drew national attention as supporters appealed to the presidential candidates. John F. Kennedy called Coretta Scott King, Robert Kennedy pressed for King's release pending appeal, and Mitchell reversed himself, setting bond so King was freed on October 27. The Kennedys' intervention helped mobilize Black voters before the election, contributed to Kennedy's victory, and elevated King's national stature while energizing the civil rights movement. In 1961, a Georgia appeals court ruled that Mitchell's sentence had been illegal, and the episode became a turning point locally and nationally.