The Scottsboro Boys Case Study

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).

According to American history, prejudice is shown through the courtroom’s jury when making decisions to send the alleged African Americans to jail. On March 24, 1931, nine African American lives were jeopardized with the false accusations of rape that further scrutinizes the nation’s controversial look upon justice. Referring to Abigail Thernson and Henry Fetter when talking about The Scottsboro Trials it states, “Represented by unprepared out of date counsel who had no more than a half an hour consult

The boys of the Scottsboro trials were never treated fairly from the beginning. The whole journey was filled with misconception. The journey began on the freight train, there was nine African Americans on a train car and with them, was a group of Caucasian men. It all started with one of the white males stepping on the hand of one of the blacks. Not too long after, the white males threatened the nine boys to leave the train car (Doc). After the nine black males refused their threat, a fight broke out between all of them. All of the members of the white group were thrown off the train, all, but one. The one that was left on the train went and reported the fight to the train conductor.

There were several trials held throughout the case of the Scottsboro Boys. Most of them were unfair and obviously conducted with the odds stacked against the boys. The testimonies given by the two girls often did not match up. Victoria Price spent the most time on the stand, and on the rare occasion that Ruby Bates testified, most of what she said was disregarded because it contradicted or changed Price’s story. It was concluded that anything Bates said was no good because she was dimwitted and could not keep her story straight.

The Scottsboro Boys case took place at the Scottsboro, Alabama town on March 25, 1931. This case had involved a group of black adolescents who, after such situation was best known as the Scottsboro boys. To be specific, these boys who were involved in this case were Clarence Norris, Olen Montgomery, Andy Wright, Roy Wright, Eugene Williams, Charlie Weems, Willie Robertson, Haywood Patterson, and Ozzie Powell. These guys were unfairly judged to have raped two white girls. While these teenagers were falsely accused of a crime that had never met, the case had become one of the most controversial, and complex instance in the United States history.

In 1931, nine men of the black race were accused of rape to two women of the white race, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates. The men were: Charles Weems, 20, Clarence Norris, 19, Andy Wright, 19, Ozie Powell, 15, Olen Montgomery, 17, Eugene Williams, 13, Willie Roberson, 16, Roy Wright, 12, and Haywood Patterson, 18. Eight of the defendants were sentenced to death. The youngest, Roy Wright, was the only one that was not given a death penalty.

Did you ever wonder who the Scottsboro Boys were? What happen to Tom Robinson? How they could manage the racisms? How it felt to be arrested for something you didn’t do? In To Kill A Mocking Bird, Tom Robinson was arrested for a crime he never committed. In addition, that time period there were many racism incidents that occurred. In many ways, the Scottsboro Boys and Tom Robinson were alike, but also different. In To kill A Mocking Bird, by Harper Lee, Tom Robinson’s Trial connects to the Scottsboro Trials because they both were accused of a crime against raping a white woman.

In trials like that of Casey Anthony, the mother arrested and charged with killing her two-year-old daughter Caylee, the popularity and widespread coverage of the case definitely influenced how citizens across the country believed Anthony should be sentenced (Document D). Anyone who saw one news story on the case that was then called to the jury probably already had formed their opinion on the status of Anthony’s innocence, without reviewing any court evidence. Consequently, their predisposed opinion, similar to the cats’ on the jury in Cartoon 3 of Document E, could have resulted in a weighted outcome. Also, the fear of a “wrong decision” made by the jury could have motivated a juror to vote solely for the outcome most popularly desirable. For example, Document D quotes Janine Gonzalez, a nearby member of Anthony’s community, as saying “She (Casey Anthony) better move and move to a faraway place.” Even though, in the end, Anthony was declared innocent, the fear of her life as well as the possible violence that could occur after the verdict could have been enough to sway a juror to convict her just to satisfy a popular

Eight black boys have been arrested on charges of rape. Their names are Clarence Norris, Charlie Weems, Haywood Patterson, Olen Montgomery, Ozie Powell, Willie Roberson, Eugene Williams, and Andy Wright. The first trial has ended with the predictable verdict of guilty for the Scottsboro boys, excluding Haywood. The second trial will commence tomorrow. Apparently, the boys were “hoboing” a freight train when a group of white men attempted to drive the boys out. Hoboing is taking a free ride on a freight train without paying. The boys drove all whites out of the freight train except for two white girls and a white boy named Orville Gilley. They were stopped at Paint Rock, Alabama and were

As the US Supreme Court ordered retrials of the boys because of a violation of the fourteenth amendment, granting the right to proper legal counsel. Then, between 1931 and 1937, there were a series of retrials and appeals. Differing from one another, three of the boys admitted to committing rape, while the other six denied it. The stupidity of the trials continued with lack of evidence and unfair juries. Medical reports show that there were no lacerations, tears of rough handling on the women, however yes they did recently have intercourse (Linder, Doug). Also Bates testified that Price had pressured her into blaming the boys so they would not get in trouble, but her words were not used as evidence (Scottsboro Boys Trials). The jurors were only whites, as racism was an issue during this time, making all of the hearings unjust. Eighty years after the court cases, the final of the boys got pardoned, with the boys serving time in jail, the judicial system is showing change. Even though the boys were punished for a crime they did not commit, “it resulted in two landmark supreme court decisions”, those being that defendants be tried by juries of their peers and the other requiring that destitute defendants receive proficient

the prisoners were lucky enough to escape the being lynched when they were moved into Scottsboro. In this trial, nine young, black boys were charged with the rape of two white girls while on a train. This case was a major source of controversy in the 1930’s. “Despite testimony by doctors who had examined the women that no rape had occurred, the all- white jury convicted the nine, and all but the youngest, who was 12 years old were sentenced to death” (“Scottsboro”). The boys’ lawyer, Samuel Leibowitz, did not even get assigned to the case until the first day of the trial. “If he could show a jury that these nine boys were innocent, as the record indicated, the jury would surely free them. To Leibowitz, that was simple!” (Chalmers 35). However, it was not that simple. Many white citizens would not change their minds about

Victims, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, displayed no signs of gang rape, including bruises, emotional distress, or open wounds. The nine boys were arrested and tried twelve days after the allegation. Because they could not be tried individually nor all together, groups of two and three from the nine were tried at a time. Six out of the nine boys claimed the event of rape never took place while the other three hesitantly agreed that the event took place due to the threats they had received (Linder). Consisting of four trials, the lawsuit resulted in the conviction and death sentences of seven of the boys. Roy Wright and Eugene Williams, the youngest of the convicted boys—at the ages of twelve and thirteen, respectively—were not given death sentences due to their young age and inability to be tried as adults. Months after the conviction, alleged victim Victoria Price admitted to fabricating the dispute to cover her violation of the Mann Act (Linder): a law that prohibits the interstate transportation for the purpose of prostitution (PBS). The Scottsboro Boys’ lawsuit draws similarities to the litigation Atticus defends in the novel. An all-white jury judged each of the four litigations belonging to the case, resulting in an indisputable bias among them all. Bias of an all-white jury parallels to the Robinson v. Ewell dispute due to the faulty conviction of an innocent, African American man. The presence of the all-white jury led to a bias in the results and continued to exist throughout the 1950s and 1960s as all-white juries remained in effect for crimes with African American

In the year 1931, all nine of the Scottsboro boys Haywood Patterson, Charles Weems, Clarence Norris, Andy Wright, Ozzie Powell, Olen Montgomery, Eugene Williams, Willie Roberson, and Roy Wright are arrested and tried on charges of assault from fighting white boys on a train. Along with accusations made by Victoria Price and Ruby Bates that the boys raped them. Their trial begins April 6, 1931. All of the boys except for Roy Wright are tired and convicted, with the result of the death sentence, Roy Wright’s trial ends in a mistrial. Later the NAACP and International Labor Defense, fight to represent the boys. Even though there was no proof that the boys committed these crimes they

The United States thought their worries on major issues of injustice and racial inequality were stories of the past, yet it never resolved and is present today. One of the most well-known, boy group to face racial injustice and tragedy was The Scottsboro Boys “who were falsely accused of rape by two white women in 1931” (The Mercury News). After more than 80 years, they were officially pardoned in April 2013. In which, “it was long overdue” (The Mercury News) and unfortunate since all of the boys died prior to the pardon. However, with Alabama trying to “repair its own legacy, and correct past injustices,” it is attempting to move forward as a state. In addition, a similar problem of racial injustice, in New York, is the stop-and-frisks law

The story of the Scottsboro boys was a tragedy that reflected how civil rights of African Americans were repeatedly stomped upon over the course of two decades in the Jim Crow South (Bruzek & Chakrabarti, para.1) Nine young Black teenagers were falsely accused of attacking a group of White boys and raping two white girls. They were just “hoboing” at that time, getting on trains, looking for a better life and opportunity to improve their status quo (Simmonds: para.1). The year was 1931, the period of the Great Depression where racial segregation and discrimination abound. At that time, the case against the boys was a huge scandal that rocked the justice system, which treated the case of the Scottsboro boys in a