Supreme Court Case Powell V. Alabama Essay Sample

On March 25. 1931. seven immature white work forces entered a railway stationmaster’s office in northern Alabama. They claimed that while they were siting the tracks. a “bunch of Negroes” picked a battle with them and threw them off the train. The station agent phoned in front to the following station. near Scottsboro. Alabama. A Scottsboro deputy sheriff made deputies of every adult male in town with a gun. When the train stopped. the posse ( group of people lawfully authorized maintain the peace ) rounded up nine immature black work forces and two immature white adult females. The adult females. Ruby Bates and Victoria Price. were dressed in men’s caps and overalls.

The deputy sheriff tied the black young persons together and started oppugning them. All of them were from other provinces. Five of them were from Georgia. Twenty-year-old Charlie Weems was the oldest. Clarence Norris was 19. Ozie Powell was 16. Olin Montgomery. 17. was blind in one oculus and had merely 10 per centum of his vision in the other oculus. Willie Roberson. 17. suffered from the sexually-transmitted diseases poxs and gonorrhoea. which made him walk with a cane. The other four male childs were from Chattanooga. Tennessee. Haywood Patterson and Andy Wright were 19. Eugene Williams was 13. Wright’s brother. Roy. was 12. None of them could read.

As the deputy sheriff loaded his captives onto an unfastened truck. one of the adult females. Ruby Bates. spoke up. She told the deputy sheriff that she and her friend had been raped by the nine black young persons. In Scottsboro. the sheriff sent the adult females off to be examined by two physicians. Meanwhile. intelligence of the colza had spread throughout the county. By nightfall. a rabble of several hundred people stood before the Scottsboro gaol. assuring to lynch ( bent ) the captives. The sheriff. barricaded inside with 21 deputies. called the governor. The governor sent out 25 National Guardsmen. but by the clip they arrived at the gaol. the crowd had given up and drifted off.

Significance:
• The Scottsboro tests gave the American public penetration into the biass and processs of Southern tribunals in their intervention of inkinesss and other minorities. • This instance was the first clip that the United States Supreme Court interpreted the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution and its guarantee to a condemnable suspect of “the Assistance of Counsel for his defense” .

Tests:
• Their test began on April 6. 1931. with the National Guard maintaining a crowd of several thousand people at bay merely 100 pess off from the courthouse. • The male childs did non hold a proper attorney ; they were being defended by whoever wanted to pick up their instance. • Their defence attorney had no hint what they were making and didn’t take the test earnestly. • One of them was a existent estate lawyer who told the male childs to acknowledge to the offense. Since the male childs had no hint as to what was traveling on they listened in hoped of avoiding the electric chair. • The other was a 70-year-old local lawyer with no condemnable defence experience • The finding of fact was read merely two hours after the test. • Nonetheless. all of the suspects except twelve-year-old Roy Wright were found guilty and sentenced to decease in the electric chair. • Due to Roy Wright’s age. the prosecution had asked for a life sentence for him instead than the decease punishment. In malice of this petition. seven of the jurymans wanted to give Roy the decease punishment. The justice was forced to declare a mistrial. Girl’s Confessions:

In the terminal the two misss admitted to doing up the narrative in order to avoid acquiring in problem. Victoria Price was in serious problem because her friend. Ruby Bates. was a minor. It’s a federal offense to take a minor across province lines for the intent of harlotry because of the Mann Act of 1910. Racism:

• The jury was all male and all white
• Racism and bias seemed to over take the tribunal through out the whole test. • Lead to unjust finding of facts Supreme Court stairss in:
• . In November. the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that seven of the suspects had been denied due procedure of jurisprudence under the Fourteenth Amendment due to the belated and insouciant intervention of the assignment of their lawyers by Judge Hawkins. • The Court noted that until the really forenoon of test no attorney had been named to stand for the suspects. The Court concluded that during the most critical clip of the test. from their arraignment to the start of the test. the suspects were without the assistance of any lawyer. They were entitled to legal advice. a thorough probe and most of import readying. The Supreme Court found that it was the responsibility of the test tribunal to give the suspects a sensible clip and opportunity to engage lawyers or to name advocate under such fortunes which prevents advocate from giving effectual assistance in the readying and test of the instance. This failure of the test tribunal was a clear denial of their right to due procedure of jurisprudence. • The U. S. Supreme Court overturned all the strong beliefs under the equal protection clause of the Constitution because the province of Alabama excluded African Americans from all juries at the clip

Concluding Verdicts:
In 1936. Haywood Patterson was tried for the 4th clip and convicted once more. He was sentenced to 75 old ages. That same twelvemonth. Clarence Norris was sentenced to decease. Andrew Wright to 99 old ages. Charles Weems to 75 old ages. and Ozie Powell pled guilty for assailing a sheriff and was sentenced to 20 old ages. Charges against Leroy “Roy” Wright. Eugene Williams. Olen Montgomery. and Willie Roberson were dropped in 1937. Of all the Scottsboro Boys. Clarence Norris lived the longest. His sentence was reduced in 1938. and he was paroled in 1946. Thirty old ages subsequently. the Governor of Alabama admitted that the Scottsboro Trials were unjust and Norris was pardoned. He was the lone Scottsboro Boy left alive. Decision:

It was a sad instance in American history where fright and bias ruined the lived of these immature work forces. But there are two visible radiations at the terminal of the tunnel: • 1st the supreme tribunal opinion that guaranteed that every American has the right to Adequate advocate • 2nd the Supreme Court opinion that allowed African Americans and adult female into the jury box.