The Scottsboro Boys were nine black boys people blamed in Alabama for assaulting two white ladies on a train in 1931. The cases from this occurrence managed prejudice and the privilege to a reasonable trial. The cases incorporated a lynch swarm before the suspects had been arraigned, every white jurie, surged trials, and problematic crowds. It is refered to as an illustration of a general unnatural birth cycle of equity in the United States legitimate framework.
On March 25, 1931, a few individuals were on a cargo train going in the middle of Chattanooga and Memphis, Tennessee. A few white young people hopped off the train and told the sheriff that they had been assaulted by a gathering of black youngsters. The sheriff nominated a force , halted and sought the train at Paint Rock, Alabama and captured the boys. Two youthful white ladies additionally got off the train
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The Alabama Supreme Court attested seven of the eight feelings, and conceded 13-year-old Eugene Williams another trial since he was a minor. Boss Justice John C. Anderson contradicted, deciding that the respondents had been denied an unprejudiced jury, reasonable trial, reasonable sentencing, and successful advice. While sitting tight for their trials, eight of the nine litigants were held in Kilby Prison. The cases were twice engaged the United States Supreme Court, which prompted point of interest choices on the behavior of trials. In the point of interest trial Powell v. Alabama new trials were requested.
The case was come back to the lower court and the judge permitted a change of venue, moving the retrials to Decatur, Alabama. Judge Horton was selected. Amid the retrials, one of the claimed casualties conceded creating the assault story and attested that none of the Scottsboro Boys touched both of the white ladies. The jury found the litigants blameworthy, yet the judge put aside the decision and allowed another
(King, 125) Franklin Williams (a lawyer at NAACP) was assigned to the Groveland Boys case and brought his associate Horace Hill with him to meet with the Groveland Boys and begin preparing the case. The FBI conducted an investigation which showed the KKK was controlling the black population in Groveland. The trial started on August 25th. In chapter 11, Dr. Geoffery Binneveld reported that he doubted Norma’s rape allegations, saying “If I were asked if the woman was raped, I would have to answer ‘I don’t know.’” Norma gave a very dramatic testimony that seemed to have been coached.
In the dissent the justices said, “that all of these acts were committed by defendants with the intent upon their part to utterly disregard the above-mentioned order of this court and to prevent the court from hearing Johnson's appeal.” The men actions proved contrary to their non-guilty pleas. For example: on the night of Johnson’s lynching, Gibson was sole officer in the jail who was him, and when confronted by the mob, he handed over his keys. Shipp and the others knew that the Johnson life was in danger and failed to protect him, violating their duty in protecting him. He had access to a militia not far from the jail, but did not contact them and even more failed to notify the local police.
The Scottsboro incident took place on March 25, 1931. Nine black teenage boys were riding a freight train along with some other white males and two white females. The black boys got in an altercation with the white youths and ended up getting arrested. At this time, the two white females, Ruby Bates and Victoria Price, gave a statement saying the black boys raped them.
There were a total of nine African American boys that were arrested in Paint Rock, Alabama. These boys were the ages of 13 to 20. The four boys that boarded in Tennessee were Haywood Patterson, Eugene Williams, and the two brothers, Andy and Roy Wright. All four of these boys jumped onto the freight train in Chattanooga, Tennessee
The Scottsboro tragedy showed the world and the North of the U.S how bad the racism problem was in the South. That was all these trials were based on. Alabama wanted to kill these men just because of the color of their skin, no real evidence. These trials revealed that injustice and caused the civil rights movement to become more supported. Although this incident was a sad time for the U.S, it helped uncover a lot of problems in the South and helped our judicial system change to be more
The Scottsboro trials was heard of everywhere. Everyone knew about it, so the people of the south couldn't do their version of justice without everyone everywhere getting extremely upset. If it had been up to just the south the nine boys would have been found guilty in the first trial and sentenced to death, but because it was so public they couldn't just sentence them to death. For example one of the trials had to be re done because the nine boys didn't have proper defense. So they brought in a guy from the north named Samuel Leibowitz.
This essay will be about two injustices the Scottsboro trial and Tom Robinson’s trial. A few similarities are that they were treated unfairly and they were all accused of a repulsive crime, raping a white woman. In the Scottsboro trial though, two women were supposedly raped. Both trials happened in the same time period, while also noting that the women in both trials came from poor backgrounds. Atticus gave his all to his case while the nine young men’s lawyer also tried his best.
THE SCOTTSBORO TRIALS There were nine African American teenagers aboard a freight train during March of 1931 in Jackson County, Alabama (Alex 1). All nine of the teenagers were accused of raping two white
Many people were hopping onto freight trains to travel to the next city in hopes of finding work. A website and museum dedicated to the Scottsboro boys described the event which led to their imprisonment. A museum and organization that speaks on the boys lives and what injustice they had said that on March 25, 1931 nine black teens ages thirteen to nineteen and many other people were aboard a freight train heading South (“History”). A famous author and historian said a fight broke out when a white male stepped on Haywood Patterson 's hand. A stone throwing fight ensued.
As the year turned into 1900, the South passed law after law that disenfranchise African Americans and enforced even more racial segregation in public facilities. One of the most cruel acts performed against blacks was death by lynching. Often white vigilantes, including the “red-shirts,” will accuse blacks for various crimes. Rather than waiting for the police or the law to deal the punishment, the vigilantes will take matters into their own hands and lynch the blacks themselves. As a result, an average of one hundred African Americans were lynched every year.
Justice Fried knew that the mass hysteria of child molestation had in fact affected the case. He also admitted that the children had been asked questions in a way that elicited a certain answer, one that confirmed the biases of all the prosecutors. To make matters worse Justice Fried also knew that the children 's testimonies were unlikely and knew how the defendant 's constitutional right of confronting their accusers had been violated. In the end Justice Fried’s position in the case was predetermined, it seems as if he did not even give the Amiraults a chance to prove their innocence. I think that Justice Fried was very biased and was not impartial at all and he did not adequately do what he was supposed to do in the situation presented to
Although many may argue that the accusations presented by the plaintiffs seemed quite plausible, further investigation proved many such claims to be false. For example, although Price and Bates accused the young African-American men of raping them on the freight train, “the Scottsboro doctor who examined the girls less than two hours after the alleged rapes […] was able to show on cross examination that the girls were both calm, composed, and free of bleeding and vaginal damage” (Linder). The fact that a certified doctor was able to prove that the young women were virtually unhurt after the supposed rapes shows that the girls were lying to the court. Although their claims made sense to the prejudiced judicial system, Price and Bates were simply using their positions in society as young white women to gain unwarranted sympathy from the all-white jury. Because scientific evidence was able to contradict the prosecution’s allegations, it was evident that false accusations were being made by the plaintiffs.
Even though Leibowitz realized the unfairness within the trial of Scottosboro case, Wright kept his onslaught. By arguing that Ruby Bates’ statement about the jury of her trip in New York City wasn’t understandable since some parts were explained in the Jew Language, he kept consequent comments for denying Leibowitz’s motion for a mistrial. Even he said that because he had been prosecuting cases in the Alabama court for long enough to know that he could use sectionalism in the court. People from outside of the region reacted different ways, such as NAACP and the I.L.D, Internaitonal Labor Defense. Sectionalism of south that was structured by the South’s regional culture definitely made this Scottsboro case to be a tragedy.
Therefore, if one was colored the trial wouldn’t be in their favor. The trials either would end in the conviction of death or the least likely, time in prison. In the Scottsboro Case and the book To Kill a Mockingbird the victims lived hard lives and were influenced by others. Aside from that the physical evidence was weak as well as the testimonies. The Scottsboro Case was the only crime in American History to produce many trials, convictions, and retrials as the alleged rape of two white girls by nine black teenagers on March 25, 1931 (Linder).
More information was found that proved the boys were on a different train car than the accusers. The court finally ruled four out of the nine defendants were to be put in jail, and it took 18 years for the last to obtain freedom (Anderson). Scottsboro happened in the early 1930s, when racism was very common everywhere in America. Correspondingly, To Kill a Mockingbird was also set during that time period. Many connections can be made between the Scottsboro trials and Tom Robinson’s trial.