In Powell vs Alabama, 287 U. S. 45 (1932) the
Supreme Court overturned the convictions on the ground that the constitutional
right to counsel had been denied.
In Norris v. Alabama 254 U. S. 587
(1935), the Supreme Court set aside the convictions because blacks had been
systematically excluded from jury service.
There was no real factual question as
to the adequacy of counsel at the mass trial in Scottsboro. Young, uneducated,
the nine required the most competent of attorneys. Instead, there had been mere
token legal representation.
The Supreme Court would not permit the
convictions to stand. The Court held that, at least in capital cases, where the
accused was unable to employ counsel and was not sufficiently knowledgeable to
present his own defense, it was the duty of the trial court to assign
appropriate counsel. Failure to do so was a violation of due process of law.
This was the first case in which the
Supreme Court held that the right "to have the assistance of counsel,"
guaranteed against state governments by the due process clause of the Fourteenth
Amendment.
Two of the seven once again underwent
trial in Scottsboro. They were convicted and given the death sentence. Again
there was a legal issue for Supreme Court review. In 1935, the high court once
more set aside the convictions. As before, there was no real dispute over the
facts although no Alabama statute discriminated against blacks as jurors, state
practices had systematically and arbitrarily excluded blacks from the jury
lists. This, ruled the Court, was a violation of the equal protection clause of
the Fourteenth Amendment.
In the subsequent history of the
Scottsboro cases, charges were dropped against five of the nine and the other
four were retired and convicted in 1936 and 1937. Three were later paroled and
the fourth who escaped, subsequently died in a Michigan penitentiary.
In the period from 1931 to 1935,
socialities, poor people, liberals raised money for the Scottsboro defense. At
one time the NAACP and the International Labor Defense Movement fought over who
would represent the boys. In the end, the International Labor Defense Movement
fought the fight to the end, and rallies to raise funds were staged in every
major city with Ruby Bates telling her true story in the labor press and on
every street corner.
AFRO files show a 1947 letter from
Haywood Patterson the last of the boys to remain in prison and forgotten by
everyone. He wrote, "In recent years the International Labor Defense
organization and others...show no particular interest in my welfare."
Haywood finally escaped from prison in
Alabama and the Governor of Michigan refused to extradite him. While in Detroit
he was convicted of a fatal knifing and died of cancer in the State Prison of
Michigan in 1952.
Copyright © 2001-, Terry Muse
Revised: November 6, 2001
URL: http://black_and_hispanic.tripod.com/blackhistory/
Contact: Terry Muse