Ozie Powell: Guilty

After observing the trial of Mr. Sanger Rainsford, many concerns arose for me. There was quite a bit of information proposed by the prosecution that seemed

In Scottsboro, Alabama, March 9, 1931 nine African american boys, Olen Montgomery, Clarence Norris, Haywood Patterson, Ozie Powell, Willie Roberson, Charles Weems, Eugene Williams, Andy Wright, and Roy Wright were incriminated of rapeing two white women on the subway. As they were accused of raping Ruby Bates and Victoria Price they were put on trial. This trail was long and unfair.

April 6, 1931, the trials for the Scottsboro boys begin(Uschan 16). The boys were represented by Milo C. Moody and Stephen Roddy who were only given twelve days to prepare for the trials. Stephen was and unpaid, unprepared real estate attorney, and Milo was a forgetful seventy year old local attorney who hadn’t tried a case in a long time (“San Marcos” line 13). The trails were completely unorganized and false information was stated throughout the whole thing. The cross examination of Victoria Price lasted minutes and the defense offered very little information to the judge. Six out of the nine boys ended up denying the rape while 3 admitted to it. Even though the three men didn’t rape the women, because of beatings and threats, they admitted to the gang rape. By the time the trail had ended 8 out of the 9 boys were convicted and sentenced to death. Since one of the Scottsboro boys was only thirteen, he was considered too young to be tried as an adult (“UMKC” par. 6-7).

Whatever the woman said it was treated as evidence, despite the story of the Afro-American. Southern white claimed to be the “guardians of the honor of Southern white women” because they were in charge of taking the Afro-American to trial and lynching them when charged with “rape”. They did it in hoped of making it clear that whites were the dominant race and to draw fear towards the Afro-Americans so they wouldn’t get involved with their Southern white ladies. It had a very double standard feel because for Southern white men, they could have an affair with an Afro-American woman and everything would be okay. It wouldn't be viewed as rape. As well as a Southern white male could rape an African American female, and they wouldn’t get lynched. The white male would be set free with a slap on the wrist. This Antebellum era was very sexist and racist and Ida B. Wells knew that, and the Southern whites knew that she knew that so they were doing everything in their power to stop her from getting the word

In 1930’s Maycomb Alabama, a young woman is stirring up a sleepy town by accusing an African American man of rape. Mayella Ewell, a poor white woman has wrongly accused Tom Robinson of sexually assaulting her in her own home. Her testimony, as well as her fathers’, have gaping holes in them. Their stories do not coincide, and it is even implied that Mayella’s father may have been sexually abusing her.(DBQ Mayella page 15 Chapters 18 and 20) The lack of sufficient evidence and Tom Robinson’s claim that Mayella had made advances toward him should have been enough for the jury to find Tom not guilty, but unfortunately, that was not the case. Instead, the jury believed Mayella’s deceitful testimony, and Tom was sent to jail, which ultimately led to his death. Mayella used her position in society to manipulate the court, and dispose of the only evidence of her mistake. Mayella Ewell is powerful as defined by class, gender, and especially race.

Cotton Mather had an issue with how Bishop’s case was handled, and how the court proceeded with other cases much like hers during this time. He sought to purge the court system of the use of spectral evidence as grounds for conviction. He felt like a man’s word was not enough to prove someone innocent or guilty, but that one needed hard evidence in order to ensure that the ruling was just. Mather’s “call[ed] for caution in his publications

On March 31, 1931 nine boys by the names of; Charles Weems, Clarence Norris, Ozie Powell, Olen Montgomery, Eugene Williams, Willie Roberson, Haywood Patterson, Andy Wright and youngest of them all, Roy Wright rode a train heading toward Alabama, they got into a fight with a group of white men that allegedly lead them to push the white men off of the train (An American Tragedy). The train stopped at a small town where an angry mob was waiting to find a group of troubled black men. As they got off the train, two young white women by the names of; Ruby Bates and Victoria Price claimed, “these boys raped us" (An American Tragedy). The public

In 1931 two white women were riding the train along with the other men (the blacks and whites). When the fight broke out the blacks had won and let the white men off the train, however when the white men got off the train, they reported the incident to the local sheriff and that’s when the train stopped in Scottsboro, Alabama and everyone on the train was arrested. That’s how it all started in Scottsboro, Alabama and it was just the beginning of the case. The two women on the train Victoria Price and Ruby Bates were about to be in serious trouble because Ruby Bates was a minor and in that time it was a federal crime to take a minor across state lines for the reason of prostitution. The only way they could get of trouble in their situation was to say the black men raped them. In the time of 1931 rape was sanctioned by death. Usually they would’ve responded by a lynching, which was when they hung someone who was suspected of a crime, but for this case the citizens of Scottsboro wanted to hold a trial instead. The trial wasn’t fair at all because the outcome had been decided before the trial even

The cumulative effect of this perspective is that if the judge is hard on the allegedly obscene editors and misrepresents their defence to the jurors, this would only be what you would expect of such a second-rate individual. Robertson’s presentation, based on truth, is heavily influenced by bias and opinion against the judge and, thereby, in favour of the defendants. The eventual verdict of guilty is seen to be inevitable. The editors were sent to prison for psychiatric examination.

Now look at Rosina Townsend who maintained the brothel. Mrs. Townsend’s brothel was a high-end brothel, but her reputation or her word was worth mo more than a piece of dirt in the bottom of your shoe. This was demonstrated the most during the trial. Judge Ogden Edwards spent an entire hour instructing the jury. The judge instructed the jury to weigh all characters involved, victim, accused, and witnesses. He instructed that the prostitutes were not to be believed unless corroborated by respectable individuals. He went as far as to try to establish an alibi for Robinson in respect to visiting the brothel on the night of the murder. If the jury felt Robinson’s guilt was beyond doubt, then to convict him; if not acquit.

``In criminal law, confession evidence is a prosecutor’s most potent weapon’’ (Kassin, 1997)—“the ‘queen of proofs’ in the law” (Brooks, 2000). Regardless of when in the legal process they occur, statements of confession often provide the most incriminating form of evidence and have been shown to significantly increase the rate of conviction. Legal scholars even argue that a defendant’s confession may be the sole piece of evidence considered during a trial and often guides jurors’ perception of the case (McCormick, 1972). The admission of a false confession can be the deciding point between a suspect’s freedom and their death sentence. To this end, research and analysis of the false confessions-filled Norfolk Four case reveals the

Finally, in Concord, New Hampshire, a teenager named Owen Labrie was found not guilty of felony sexual assault in 2015. The nineteen-year-old was convicted for a total of nine charges. Three were felony sexual assault charges of which he pleaded not guilty to all of them .

We are Schuetter, Tuttle, and Keldsen. The verdict to this case is simple. Ozie Powell did not take part in the rape, and will be declared innocent. The state brought forward prostitutes Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, along with Price’s boyfriend, Lester Carter. Carter is an unreliable source. He will be completely biased toward the women, especially his girlfriend, Bates. He lied for the benefit of them. Also, there is inconsistency between Price and Bate’s answers. Price stated that she did know who raped her, and recognized the group of black boys, while Bates did not recognize or remember any of the group. The police also did not complete a thorough investigation. The police arrested every young black male on the train, assuming that they all partook in the rape, when that is really not true. No one raped the women. According to Dr. Bridges, a certified doctor, the semen was non-motile. This means that the women lied about the case. There is absolutely no evidence that the women got raped. The women were never raped. They were just trying to frame the men. It is ostensible that through our extensive investigation, we have revealed an abundant quantity of reasons and a plethora of vigorous auxiliary evidence to authenticate the innocence of the defendant, Ozie Powell. We postulate that Ozie Powell is utterly guiltless and that Victoria Price and Ruby Bates have formulated elaborate fabrications about the manifestation of rape on

I think that her attitude during the trial and her location on the train makes it hard to believe that she was raped. Also one of the witnesses to this rape was Orville Gilley who was one of the white boys that was involved in the fight, but he was also sexually involved with victoria so I do not think he is a reliable witness.

This case is a well known case that has to do with the supposed rape and burglary of a woman from North Carolina on June 6th, 1984 and the case involved an eyewitness named Jennifer Thompson-Cannino, she was a college student at the time of her assault, the person being charged of these crimes was a man named Ronald Cotton and the story was that someone broke into her house, the assailant tried to rape her and she thought she got a good look at the person. In a photo and live lineup she thought Cotton was 100% her attacker.