Scottsboro Boys

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The case of the Scottsboro Boys arose in Alabama during the 1930s, when nine black teenagers, none older than nineteen, were accused of raping two white women on a train. After a trial which is now regarded as one of the travesties of the American justice system, the defendants were sentenced to death, despite the fact that one of the women later denied being raped. The convictions were overturned on appeal, and all of the defendants were eventually acquitted, paroled, or pardoned, some after serving years in prison.

Tom Robinson's trial in Nelle Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird was inspired by this case.

The U.S. Supreme Court

On November 7, 1932, in Powell v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the defendants were denied the right to counsel, which violated their right to due process under the Fourteenth Amendment. On April 1, 1935, in Norris v. Alabama, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the exclusion of blacks from the grand jury which issued the indictment violated the Boys' Fourteenth Amendment rights.

The End of the Case

In July, 1937, Clarence Norris was convicted of rape and sentenced to death, Andy Wright was convicted of rape and sentenced to 99 years, and Charlie Weems was convicted and sentenced to 75 years in prison. Ozzie Powell pleaded guilty to assaulting the sheriff and was sentenced to 20 years. In addition, four of the boys, Roy Wright, Eugene Williams, Olen Montgomery and Willie Roberson, were released after all charges against them were dropped. Later, Alabama Governor Bibb Graves reduced Clarence Norris' death sentence to life in prison. Norris was later pardoned by the governor. All of the Scottsboro Boys were eventually paroled, freed or pardoned, except for Haywood Patterson, who was tried and convicted of rape and given the death penalty four times. He escaped north to Detroit. When he was later arrested by the FBI in the fifties the governor of Michigan did not allow him to be extradited back to Alabama.

Further Reading

Carter, Dan T., Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South
Goodman, James, Stories of Scottsboro
Norris, Clarence, and Washington, Sybil D., The Last ot the Scottsboro Boys: An Autobiography

External Link

Biographies of Key Figures in "The Scottsboro Boys" Trials
Bienen, Leigh & Gilbert Geis. Crimes of the Century: From Leopold and Loeb to O. J. Simpson. Boston: Northeastern Univ. Press, 1998. [1]