As national outrage over the convictions grew, numerous organizations came forward to assist with appeals, including the ACLU. The Scottsboro defendants were ultimately saved from execution, but they languished in prison for years. Even after being released, most never fully recovered from their ordeal.
Attorney Samuel LeibowitzAttorney Samuel Leibowitz with the Scottsboro boys, Courtesy: Morgan County Archives. When Haywood Patterson was found guilty in 1933, it was the first time in fifteen years that Samuel Leibowitz had lost a case.
Alabama, the Supreme Court overturned the Scottsboro convictions by a vote of 7 to 2. The majority opinion determined that the defendants were denied a fair trial due to ineffective counsel who had no time to prepare, resulting in a violation of the due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment.
As a group of black teenagers awaited execution, the Communist Party and the NAACP bickered over their legal defense. As a group of black teenagers awaited execution, the Communist Party and the NAACP bickered over their legal defense.Feb 7, 2020
Alabama (1935),the Supreme Court unanimously overturned another conviction on the grounds that African-Americans had been systematically excluded from jury pools, violating the Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial as well as the Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection under the law.
(Part 4) On April 1, 1935, the US Supreme Court overturned the new convictions because lawyers for the Scottsboro Boys had proven that Alabama intentionally excluded African Americans from sitting on any juries. This violated the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.
That drama revolved around nine Black youths charged with raping two white girls on a freight train in Alabama. The youths became known as the Scottsboro Boys, and the case became a window into the South's unremittingly brutal system of justice.Jul 27, 2020