THE SCOTTSBORO TRIAL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCBV-GhyINY

MARCH 25TH 1931

•Great Depression

• Railroad car from Chattanooga to Memphis

•Mixed races on board

•One white male stepped on a black male’s hand

• Fight ensued

•Whites were forced off the train near Stevenson

• Sent a wire ahead to the next town (Paint Rock)

•Mob was waiting

• Arrested 9 African American youth (The Scottsboro Boys ages 13-23)

“In the jail that March 25th, Price pointed out six of the nine boys and said that they were the ones who raped her.  The guard reportedly replied, ‘If those six had Miss Price, it stands to reason that the others had Miss Bates’” (Linder).

Victoria Price & Ruby Bates

THE TRIAL• The boys were tried 12 days after their arrest

• Groups of 2 and 3

• Their lawyers were considered inadequate

• Minimal cross examination – Conflicting accounts

• Defendants were the only witnesses to the defense

AFTER THE INITIAL TRIALS

• Sentence to death by execution April 9th, 1932

• Execution of William Hokes was the next day

• NAACP chose not to get involved for awhile

• The Communist Party represented them at the Supreme Court

• In 1932, Supreme Court declared the 14th amendment had been violated, but only some were granted a retrial

• Samuel Leibowitz

• Lawyer from New York

•Had won 77 of 78 murder cases

• Attacked every detail of Price’s testimony

• She kept saying “I can’t remember”

RETRIAL

IN THE END

• Haywood Patterson – sentenced to 75 years, escaped, wrote The Scottsboro Boy

• Clarence Norris – sentenced to death, then life, jumped parole

• Andrew Wright – sentenced to 99 years, released in 1950

• Charlie Weems – sentenced to 105 years, released in1943

• Ozie Powel – assaulted an officer, given 20 years, Scottsboro charges dropped, released in 1946

• On July 24, 1937, the state of Alabama dropped all charges against Willie Roberson, Olen Montgomery, Eugene Williams, and Roy Wright. The four had spent over six years in prison; the adults on death row.

• Posthumously pardoned in 2013 (last year!)

WORKS CITED

• Linder, Douglas O. "Scottboro Boys." Scottboro Boys. University of Missouri-Kansas, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.

• Wikipedia – Scottsboro Boys