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The Scottsboro Boys were nine African-American teenagers accused in Alabama of raping two White American women on a train in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial. The cases included a lynch mob before the suspects had been indicted, a frameup, all-white juries, rushed trials, and disruptive mobs. It is frequently cited as an example of an overall miscarriage of justice in the United States legal system. On March 25, 1931, several people were hoboing on a freight train traveling between Chattanooga and Memphis, Tennessee. Several white teenagers jumped off the train and reported to the sheriff that they had been attacked by a group of African-American teenagers. The sheriff deputized a ''posse comitatus'', stopped and searched the train at Paint Rock, Alabama and arrested the African Americans. Two young white women also got off the train and accused the African-American teenagers of rape. The case was first heard in Scottsboro, Alabama, in three rushed trials, in which the defendants received poor legal representation. All but 12-year-old Roy Wright were convicted of rape and sentenced to death, the common sentence in Alabama at the time for black men convicted of raping white women,〔 even though there was medical evidence to suggest that they had not committed the crime. With help from the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), the case was appealed. 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. Chief Justice John C. Anderson dissented, ruling that the defendants had been denied an impartial jury, fair trial, fair sentencing, and effective counsel. While waiting for their trials, eight of the nine defendants were held in Kilby Prison. The cases were twice appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which led to landmark decisions on the conduct of trials. In ''Powell v. Alabama'' (1932), it ordered new trials.〔''Powell v. Alabama'', 1932, 287 U.S. 45.〕 The case was returned to the lower court and the judge allowed a change of venue, moving the retrials to Decatur, Alabama. Judge Horton was appointed. During the retrials, one of the alleged victims admitted fabricating the rape story and asserted that none of the Scottsboro Boys touched either of the white women. The jury found the defendants guilty, but the judge set aside the verdict and granted a new trial. The judge was replaced and the case tried under a more biased judge, whose rulings went against the defense. For the third time a jury—now with one African-American member—returned a third guilty verdict. The case returned to the US Supreme Court on appeal. It ruled that African Americans had to be included on juries, and ordered retrials.〔''Norris v. Alabama'' (1935), 294 U.S. 587, 595–596.〕 Charges were finally dropped for four of the nine defendants. Sentences for the rest ranged from 75 years to death. All but two served prison sentences. One was shot in prison by a guard and permanently disabled. Two escaped, were later charged with other crimes, convicted, and sent back to prison. Clarence Norris, the oldest defendant and the only one sentenced to death, "jumped parole" in 1946 and went into hiding. He was found in 1976 and pardoned by Governor George Wallace, by which time the case had been thoroughly analyzed and shown to be an injustice. Norris later wrote a book about his experiences. The last surviving defendant died in 1989. "The Scottsboro Boys," as they became known, were defended by many in the North and attacked by many in the South. The case is now widely considered a miscarriage of justice, particularly highlighted by use of all-white juries. African Americans in Alabama had been disenfranchised since the turn of the century and thus were generally disqualified from jury duty. The case has been explored in many works of literature, music, theatre, film and television. On November 21, 2013, Alabama's parole board voted to grant posthumous pardons to the three Scottsboro Boys who had not been pardoned or had their convictions overturned. ==Arrests and accusations== On March 24, 1931, on the Southern Railway line between Chattanooga and Memphis, Tennessee, nine black youths were "hoboing" on a freight train with several white males and two white women.〔Aretha (2008), p. 10.〕 A fight began between the white and black groups near the Lookout Mountain tunnel, and the whites were kicked off the train. A posse in Paint Rock, Alabama, was given orders to search for and "capture every Negro on the train."〔Douglas O. Linder, "Without Fear or Favor: Judge James Edwin Horton and the Trial of the 'Scottsville Boys, Vol. 68 ''UMKC Law Review'' 549, 550.〕 The posse arrested the black teenagers for assault.〔Acker (2007), pp. 2–3.〕 The black teenagers were Olen Montgomery (aged 17), Clarence Norris (aged 19), Haywood Patterson (aged 18), Ozie Powell (aged 16), Willie Roberson (aged 16), Charlie Weems (aged 16), Eugene Williams (aged 13), and brothers Andy (aged 19), and Roy Wright (aged 12 or 13).〔 The posse also encountered two white women, Ruby Bates and Victoria Price, who told the posse that they had been raped by the black teenagers.〔Linder, p. 550.〕 A doctor was called and soon examined the women for evidence of rape and for samples of semen. A widely published photo showed the two women shortly after the arrests in 1931. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Scottsboro Boys」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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