"[102], Patterson claimed the threats had been made by guards and militiamen while the defendants were in the Jackson County jail. On July 26, 1937, Haywood Patterson was sent to Atmore State Prison Farm. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. The decision of Judge James Horton to set aside the conviction of Haywood Patterson, despite the dire consequences that decision would have for his own career . sleepless In March of 1931, nine young African-American men were accused of raping two white women on a train. October: George Wallace, governor of Alabama, pardons Clarence Norris. against [54] He wrote, "While the constitution guarantees to the accused a speedy trial, it is of greater importance that it should be by a fair and impartial jury, ex vi termini ("by definition"), a jury free from bias or prejudice, and, above all, from coercion and intimidation. They also dropped rape charges against the four remaining defendantsMontgomery, Roberson, Williams and Leroy Wrightand all four were released. What did Victoria Price spend time in the work house for, and how many times had she been married? Each young man was tried, convicted and sentenced in a matter of days. The Scottsboro Defense Committee is organized. As a result of the pressure of the case, Watts becomes sick, causing Leibowitz to steer the defense. Scheduled maintenance: Thursday, January 26 from 6PM to 7PM PST. At this trial, Victoria Price testified that two of her alleged assailants had pistols, that they threw off the white teenagers, that she tried to jump off but was grabbed, thrown onto the gravel in the gondola, one of them held her legs, and one held a knife on her, and one raped both her and Ruby Bates. Wright and Williams, regardless of their guilt or innocence, were 12 and 13 at the time and, in view of the jail time they had already served, justice required that they also be released. This astonished (and infuriated) many residents of Alabama and many other Southern states. Who framed them? The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and other civil rights groups joined the ILD that year to form the Scottsboro Defense Committee, which reorganized the defense effort for the next set of retrials. On cross-examination, Bridges testified detecting no movement in the spermatozoa found in either woman, suggesting intercourse had taken place sometime before. [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. at the prison over the next ten years. Charlie The Attorney General of Alabama, Thomas E. Knight, represented the State. 30 days. [116], Closing arguments were on December 4, 1933. Clarence Norris, who received a pardon from Governor George Wallace of Alabama in 1976, would outlive all of the other Scottsboro Boys, dying in 1989 at the age of 76. boys because Clarence Norris, Charlie Weems, Haywood Patterson, Olen The sheriff deputized a posse, stopped and searched the train at Paint Rock, Alabama and arrested the black Americans. Terms in this set (28) Lewis, Femi. She said none of the defendants had touched her or even spoken to her. [31] Other witnesses testified that "the negroes" had gotten out of the same gondola car as Price and Bates; a farmer claimed to have seen white women [on the train] with the black youths. The Scottsboro Defense Committee (SDC) is established with Allan Knight Chalmers as chairman. and sentenced to 75 years. and Patterson The NAACP and IDL also raise money for appeals. . According to the U.S. Supreme Court, "something more" was needed. reversal are Femi Lewis is a writer and educator who specializes in African American history topics, including enslavement, activism, and the Harlem Renaissance. Judge Horton refused to grant a new trial, telling the jury to "put [the remarks] out of your minds. November to December: Patterson and Norris' cases both end in the death penalty. of Alabama. [17] The judge persuaded Stephen Roddy, a Chattanooga, Tennessee, real estate lawyer, to assist him. Grand jury indicts the nine Scottsboro boys for rape. The Justices examined the items closely with a magnifying glass. He said that he had not seen "any white women" until the train "got to Paint Rock. gathered around To See Justice Done: Letters from the Scottsboro Boys Trials, Scottsboro Boys Trial Clippings, The University of Alabama in Huntsville Archives and Special Collections, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Scottsboro_Boys&oldid=1151036869, Overturned convictions in the United States, Recipients of American gubernatorial pardons, CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown, Articles with dead external links from May 2018, Articles with permanently dead external links, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2019, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2016, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2014, Articles prone to spam from February 2015, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Following his conviction, Haywood Patterson spent 13 years in prison. [100], Orville Gilley's testimony at Patterson's Decatur retrial was a mild sensation. Alabama Supreme Court affirms the convictions of Haywood [84], Attorney General Knight delivered his rebuttal, roaring that if the jury found Haywood not guilty, they ought to "put a garland of roses around his neck, give him a supper, and send him to New York City." On July 24, 1937, Ozie Powell was taken into court and the new prosecutor, Thomas Lawson, announced that the state was dropping rape charges against Powell and that he was pleading guilty to assaulting a deputy. Convicted of manslaughter after a barroom brawl in 1951, Patterson died of cancer in 1952. I appreciate the Pardons and Parole Board for continuing our progress today and officially granting these pardons. Thus far in the trial, Ruby Bates had been notably absent. of the The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial. HISTORY.com works with a wide range of writers and editors to create accurate and informative content. ThoughtCo, Jul. The bailiff let the jurors out [from the Patterson trial]. They kept Joseph Brodsky as the second chair for the trial. [91] He removed protection from the defense, convincing Governor Benjamin Meek Miller to keep the National Guard away. Updated: August 30, 2022 | Original: February 22, 2018. Price dies five years later. The New York Times described Leibowitz as "pressing the judge almost as though he were a hostile witness. Later, she worked in a New York state spinning factory until 1938; that year she returned to Huntsville. The Scottsboro Boys' First Trials and Appeals: From the Grotesque to the Victorious. 1 day. [102], The prosecution called several white farmers who testified that they had seen the fight on the train and saw the girls "a-fixin' to get out", but they saw the defendants drag them back. In 2013, the state of Alabama issued posthumous pardons for Patterson, Weems, and Andy Wright. tried [27], During the defense testimony, defendant Charles Weems testified that he was not part of the fight, that Patterson had the pistol, and that he had not seen the white girls on the train until the train pulled into Paint Rock. 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. He testified that he had been on the train on the morning of the arrests. [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. Thomas Lawson announced that all charges were being dropped against the remaining four defendants: He said that after "careful consideration" every prosecutor was "convinced" that Roberson and Montgomery were "not guilty." Norris and Wright leave Montgomery in violation of . Deputy Sheriff Edgar Blalock. They were both suspected of being prostitutes and not only risked being arrested for it, but they could also have been prosecuted for violating the Mann Act by crossing a state line "for immoral purposes. January: The NAACP withdraws from the case after the Scottsboro Boys decide to let the ILD handle their case. "[79], Just after the defense rested "with reservations", someone handed Leibowitz a note. The defense objected vigorously, but the Court allowed it.[42]. The other five were convicted and received sentences ranging from 75 years to death. Not until the first day of the trial were the defendants provided with the services of two volunteer lawyers. The trial of Craig protested: "I can't change my vote, judge." nights. He was paroled in 1946 following his conviction for assault. of the execution, many of the boys report nightmares or What was the final verdict? The trial of the youngest, 13-year-old Leroy Wright, ended in a hung jury when one juror favored life imprisonment rather than death. It was as if the exclusion was so ordinary as to be unconscious. October 29: Graves meets with the convicted defendants to consider parole. Rape charges When Leibowitz accused them of excluding black men from juries, they did not seem to understand his accusation. Judge Horton postpones the trials of the other Scottsboro July 12: Victoria Price sues NBC for defamation and invasion of privacy after its broadcast of Judge Horton and the Scottsboro Boys airs. He remained in contact with Clarence Norris for a few years and planned on Norris reuniting with younger brother Roy, but after Roy's death, Norris never saw Andy again. [67], Price insisted that she had spent the evening before the alleged rape at the home of Mrs. Callie Brochie in Chattanooga. In 2016, the site seemed to be showing its age. Many years later, Judge Horton said that Dr. Lynch confided that the women had not been raped and had laughed when he examined them. On cross-examination he testified that he had seen "all but three of those negroes ravish that girl", but then changed his story. But even with her revised testimony and evidence from the initial medical examination of the women that refuted the rape charge, another all-white jury convicted the first defendant, Patterson, and recommended the death penalty. [92] The prosecution countered with testimony that some of the quotes in the affidavits were untrue and that six of the people quoted were dead. What brought the Scottsboro trial to an end? [108], Judge Callahan charged the jury that Price and Bates could have been raped without force, just by withholding their consent. 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. [65] The jury was selected by the end of the day on Friday and sequestered in the Lyons Hotel. Clarence Norris, the last surviving Scottsboro boy, dies By the early 1930s, with the nation mired in the Great Depression, many unemployed Americans would try and hitch rides aboard freight trains to move around the country searching for work. Clarence Norris, the oldest defendant and the only one sentenced to death in the final trial, "jumped parole" in 1946 and went into hiding. "[103] Bailey attacked the defense case. "[80], Her dramatic and unexpected entrance drew stares from the residents of the courtroom. the due process clause of the 14th Amendment. [78], Haywood Patterson testified on his own behalf that he had not seen the women before stopping in Paint Rock; he withstood a cross-examination from Knight who "shouted, shook his finger at, and ran back and forth in front of the defendant. The sheriff gathered a posse and gave orders to search for and "capture every Negro on the train. He denied participating in the fight or being in the gondola car where the fight took place. James A. Miller, Susan D. Pennybacker, and Eve Rosenhaft, "Mother Ada Wright and the International Campaign to Free the Scottsboro Boys, 19311934", Markovitz, Jonathan (2011). convicted What relation does it have to the Scottsboro Trials? right to Her claim, however, is dismissed. to trials. their 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. Michigan's The other seven defendants appear in Callahan's courtroom. . January: Andy Wright and Clarence Norris are released on parole. to What did Samuel Leibowitz suggest to the court about Victoria Price's story? The defense attorney showed that "Mr. Sanford" was evidently qualified in all manner except by virtue of his race to be a candidate for participation in a jury. . is convicted and sentenced to 99 years for rape. 1931 What year did the Scottsboro story begin? [110], As Time described it: "Twenty-six hours later came a resounding thump on the brown wooden jury room door. August: A denial of parole is recommended for Patterson and Powell by an Alabama parole board. to be The only drama came when Knight pulled a torn pair of step-ins from his briefcase and tossed them into the lap of a juror to support the claim of rape. He had never lost a murder trial and was a registered Democrat, with no connection to the Communist Party. her It was the basis for the court's finding in Norris v. Alabama (1935), that exclusion of African-American grand jurors had occurred, violating the due process clause of the Constitution. their paroles. Conviction of Haywood Patterson is upheld by the Alabama He is found guilty and sentenced to 75 years in prison. [131] In January 2004, the town dedicated a historical marker in commemoration of the case at the Jackson County Court House. After Alabama freed Roy Wright, the Scottsboro Defense Committee took him on a national lecture tour. Stand your ground, show you are a man, a red-blooded he-man. [114], Dr. Bridges was a state witness, and Leibowitz cross-examined him at length, trying to get him to agree that a rape would have produced more injuries than he found. "[45], The NAACP hesitated to take on the rape case. The jury found the defendants guilty, but the judge set aside the verdict and granted a new trial. Judge Callahan allowed it, although he would not allow testimony by Patterson stating that he had not seen the women before Paint Rock. Because the case of Haywood Patterson had been dismissed due to the technical failure to appeal it on time, it presented different issues. But he said that he saw the alleged rapes by the other blacks from his spot atop the next boxcar. June 22: Pending an appeal to the Alabama Supreme Court, the executions of the nine defendants are stayed. "[99] The many contradictions notwithstanding, Price steadfastly stuck to her testimony that Patterson had raped her. At one point, a white man stood on the hand of 18-year-old Haywood Patterson, who would become one of the Scottsboro Nine, and almost knocked him off the train. Norris race, is "[111], In May 1934, despite having run unopposed in the previous election for the position, James Horton was soundly defeated when he ran for re-election as a circuit judge. July: Norris' death sentence is commuted to life imprisonment by Governor Graves. death of 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.