They say this is a frame-up! Horton also postpones the trials of the eight other defendants as racial tensions are high in town. '"[131], Sheila Washington founded the Scottsboro Boys Museum & Cultural Center in 2010 in Scottsboro. He noted that Roddy "declined to appear as appointed counsel and did so only as amicus curiae." Judge Callahan started jury selection for the trial of defendant Norris on November 30, 1933, Thanksgiving afternoon. The African-American men ranged in age from thirteen to nineteen. 30 days. Victoria Price, brought out for Bates to identify, glared at her. The National Guard Captain Joe Burelson promised Judge Horton that he would protect Leibowitz and the defendants "as long as we have a piece of ammunition or a man alive. Chamlee was joined by Communist Party attorney Joseph Brodsky and ILD attorney Irving Schwab. He was reported to have died not long after his release due to tuberculosis. . [citation needed], Defendant Clarence Norris stunned the courtroom by implicating the other defendants. The second round of trials began in the circuit court in Decatur, Alabama, 50 miles west of Scottsboro, under Judge James Horton. June: The sentences given to Norris, Andy Wright, and Weems are affirmed by the Alabama Supreme Court. Samuel S. Leibowitz, a New York lawyer, is retained by the During prosecution testimony, Victoria Price stated that she and Ruby Bates witnessed the fight, that one of the black men had a gun, and that they all raped her at knifepoint. [citation needed], Olen Montgomery testified that he had been alone on a tank car the entire trip, and had not known about the fight or alleged rapes. boys are arrested on charges of assault. "[85], The jury began deliberating Saturday afternoon and announced it had a verdict at ten the next morning, while many residents of Decatur were in church. "What has been done to her cannot be undone. Scottsboro's jail. March 25: A group of young African-American and white men engage in a scuffle while riding a freight train. Callahan sustained a prosecution objection, ruling "the question is not based on the evidence."[115]. 16. is convicted and sentenced to 99 years for rape. Michigan's The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial. April 9, 1933 : Haywood Patterson found guilty by jury and sentenced to death in . Judge Horton sets aside Haywood Patterson's conviction and Scottsboro Trial Collection, Cornell Law Library. According to the U.S. Supreme Court, "something more" was needed. . The trials of the Scottboro Boys, the two Supreme Court verdicts they produced and the international uproar over their treatment helped fuel the rise of the civil rights movement later in the 20th century, and left a lasting imprint on the nations legal and cultural landscape. I appreciate the Pardons and Parole Board for continuing our progress today and officially granting these pardons. nights. On March 25, 1931, two dozen people were "hoboing" on a freight train traveling between Chattanooga and Memphis, Tennessee, the hoboes being an equal mix of blacks and whites. As to representation, the Court found "that the defendants were represented by counsel who thoroughly cross examined the state's witnesses, and presented such evidence as was available. During the following cross-examination, Knight addressed the witness by his first name, "John." [55], Anderson criticized how the defendants were represented. He escaped from prison in Alabama but was convicted of a different crime in Michigan and died in prison there. jurisdiction and They said the problem was with the way Judge Hawkins "immediately hurried to trial. Finally, he defended the women, "Instead of painting their faces they were brave enough to go to Chattanooga and look for honest work. Welcome to Famous Trials, the Web's largest and most visited collection of original essays, trial transcripts and exhibits, maps, images, and other materials relating to the greatest trials in world history. He did so within the next year, and reportedly died in Alabama in 1975. He also argues that names added on the current rolls were forged. There was a wrong amount of Black jury officials. April 18: Judge Horton suspends Patterson's death sentence after a motion for a new trial. The Scottsboro trial happened in Alabama in 1931. "[56], Anderson noted that, as the punishment for rape ranged between ten years and death, some of the teenagers should have been found "less culpable than others", and therefore should have received lighter sentences. An African American, Creed Conyer, was selected as the first black person since Reconstruction to sit on an Alabama grand jury. This sentence was a negotiation between the foreman and the rest of the jury. Subjects . It was market day in Scottsboro, and farmers were in town to sell produce and buy supplies. In an opinion written by Associate Justice George Sutherland, the Court found the defendants had been denied effective counsel. The Associated Press reported that the defendants were "calm" and "stoic" as Judge Hawkins handed down the death sentences one after another. On April 9, 1931, eight of the nine young men were convicted and sentenced to death. The case is overturned and sent to a lower court. Weems is He had never lost a murder trial and was a registered Democrat, with no connection to the Communist Party. Multiple trials were held in which all-white juries found guilty Charlie Weems, Ozzie Powell, Clarence Norris, Olen Montgomery . Bailey, the prosecutor in his Scottsboro trial, stating, "And Mr. Bailey over therehe said send all the niggers to the electric chair. Knight questioned them extensively about instances in which their testimony supposedly differed from their testimony at their trial in Scottsboro. He is not here." When the jury returned its verdict from the first trial, the jury from the second trial was taken out of the courtroom. [97] She said the negros had ripped her clothes off and repeatedly raped her at knifepoint, and pointed out Patterson as one of the rapists. In total, the Scottsboro nine were found guilty in three separate trials. Solicitor H. G. Bailey reminded the jury that the law presumed Patterson innocent, even if what Gilley and Price had described was "as sordid as ever a human tongue has uttered." He was paroled in New York State in 1950. Court. ), Leibowitz called local black professionals as witnesses to show they were qualified for jury service. 29, 2021, thoughtco.com/timeline-of-scottsboro-boys-45428. Judge Callahan arraigned all the defendants except the two juveniles in Decatur; they all pleaded not guilty. As to the "newly discovered evidence", the Court ruled: "There is no contention on the part of the defendants, that they had sexual intercourse with the alleged victim with her consent so the defendants would not be granted a new trial."[53]. Roy Wright, Eugene Williams, Olen Montgomery and Willie the Scottsboro boys. In 1936, Ozie Powell was involved in an altercation with a guard and shot in the face, suffering permanent brain damage. Norris later wrote a book about his experiences. Another police official shoots Powell in the head. Ozzie Powell is shot in the head by Sheriff Jay Sandlin "[35], The younger Wright brother testified that Patterson was not involved with the girls, but that nine black teenagers had sex with the girls. The U.S. Supreme Court declines to review the Patterson The judge had ordered the Alabama bar to assist the defendants, but the only attorney who volunteered was Milo Moody, a 69-year-old attorney who had not defended a case in decades. The whites went to a sheriff in the nearby town Paint Rock, Alabama, and claimed that they were assaulted by the Black Americans on the train. Callahan limited each side to two hours of argument. NAACP and International Labor Defense (ILD) battle for the [43], Judge Hawkins set the executions for July 10, 1931, the earliest date Alabama law allowed. [4] Charges were finally dropped for four of the nine defendants. The Supreme Court sent the case back to Judge Hawkins for a retrial. against Two men escaped, were later charged with other crimes and convicted, and sent back to prison. "Famous Trials" first appeared on the Web in 1995, making this site older than about 99.97% of all websites. She said she was "sorry for all the trouble that I caused them", and claimed she did it because she was "frightened by the ruling class of Scottsboro." Clarence Norris's death sentence is reduced to life in But from then on the defense was helpless. He claimed also to have been on top of the boxcar, and that Clarence Norris had a knife. He was called in to see the judge presiding over that retrial, James Horton, who exhorted him to change his vote to guilty. The Alabama Supreme Court affirmed seven of the eight convictions, and granted 13-year-old Eugene Williams a new trial because he was a minor. With prominent defense attorney Samuel Leibowitz arguing the case for the ILD, the Alabama Supreme Court unanimously denied the defenses motion for new trials, and the case headed for a second hearing in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. What movement did the Scottsboro Trials re-spark? This second landmark decision in the Scottsboro Boys case would help integrate future juries across the nation. On the date first set for their executions, the Scottsboro boys listen to the execution of Willie Stokes, the first of ten blacks to be executed at the prison over the next ten years. He testified that he had been on the train on the morning of the arrests. At Knight's request, the court replaced Judge Horton with Judge William Washington Callahan, described as a racist. It upheld seven of eight rulings from the lower court. Grounds for in The defense moved for another change of venue, submitting affidavits in which hundreds of residents stated their intense dislike for the defendants, to show there was "overwhelming prejudice" against them. Lewis, Femi. By the evening, the local newspaper, Jackson County Sentinel calls the rape a "revolting crime.". 17. However, G. Mennen Williams, governor of Michigan does not extradite Patterson to Alabama. He was paroled in 1946 following his conviction for assault. This trial began within minutes of the previous case. [32], After the outburst, the defense of Patterson moved for a mistrial, but Judge Hawkins denied the motion and testimony continued. Ruby Bates, in a letter to a Earl Streetman, denies that [133] It is located in the former Joyce Chapel United Methodist Church and is devoted to exploring the case and commemorating the search for justice for its victims. The Court concluded, "the motion to quash should have been granted. As news spread of the alleged rape (a highly inflammatory charge given the Jim Crow laws in the South), an angry white mob surrounded the jail, leading the local sheriff to call in the Alabama National Guard to prevent a lynching. Roberson, Montgomery, and Powell all denied they had known each other or the other defendants before that day. Callahan denied the motion. The men's cells were next to the execution chamber, and they heard the July 10, 1931 execution of Will Stokes,[44] a black man from St. Clair County convicted of murder. "Scottsboro: An American Tragedy", PBS.org, CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (, "A wing of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the United States, devoted to the defense of people it perceived as victims of a class war. [citation needed], The pace of the trials was very fast before the standing-room-only, all-white audience. "[79], Just after the defense rested "with reservations", someone handed Leibowitz a note. The second trial of Haywood Patterson opened on March 30 . right to The train is stopped in Paint Rock, Ala and nine African-American teens are arrested for assault. convictions. Judge Horton warned spectators to stop laughing at her testimony or he would eject them. of the she He walked through the mob and the crowd parted to let him through; Wann was not touched by anyone. 18. The Last of the Scottsboro Boys, in 1979. Patterson pointed at H.G. The two years that had passed since the first trials had not dampened community hostility for the Scottsboro Boys. [citation needed], There was no evidence (beyond the women's testimony) pointing to the guilt of the accused, yet that was irrelevant due to the prevalent racism in the South at the time, according to which black men were constantly being policed by white men for signs of sexual interest in white women, which could be punishable by lynching.
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