Scottsboro Boys
Two white women who were also aboard the train, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, told a member of the posse that they had been raped by a group of black teenagers.
[21] Because of the mob atmosphere, Roddy petitioned the court for a change of venue, entering into evidence newspaper and law enforcement accounts[22] describing the crowd as "impelled by curiosity".
[33] Other witnesses testified that "the negroes" had gotten out of the same gondola car as Price and Bates; a farmer claimed to have seen white women [on the train] with the black youths.
"[57] Anderson noted that, as the punishment for rape ranged between ten years and death, some of the teenagers should have been found "less culpable than others", and therefore should have received lighter sentences.
Anderson concluded, "No matter how revolting the accusation, how clear the proof, or how degraded or even brutal, the offender, the Constitution, the law, the very genius of Anglo-American liberty demand a fair and impartial trial.
The Supreme Court did not fault Moody and Roddy for lack of an effective defense, noting that both had told Judge Hawkins that they had not had time to prepare their cases.
In the courtroom, the Scottsboro Boys sat in a row wearing blue prison denims and guarded by National Guardsmen, except for Roy Wright, who had not been convicted.
"[61] Leibowitz asserted his trust in the "God-fearing people of Decatur and Morgan County";[61] he made a pretrial motion to quash the indictment on the ground that blacks had been systematically excluded from the grand jury.
[63] (Note: Since most blacks could not vote after having been disenfranchised by the Alabama Constitution, the local jury commissioners probably never thought about them as potential jurors, who were limited to voters.)
Once when Leibowitz confronted her with a contradiction in her testimony, she exclaimed, sticking a finger in the direction of defendant Patterson, "One thing I will never forget is that one sitting right there raped me.
The National Guard Captain Joe Burelson promised Judge Horton that he would protect Leibowitz and the defendants "as long as we have a piece of ammunition or a man alive.
Leibowitz put on the testimony of Chattanooga gynecologist, Dr. Edward A. Reisman, who testified that after a woman had been raped by six men, it was impossible that she would have only a trace of semen, as was found in this case.
[79] Haywood Patterson testified on his own behalf that he had not seen the women before stopping in Paint Rock; he withstood a cross-examination from Knight who "shouted, shook his finger at, and ran back and forth in front of the defendant.
When asked why she had initially said she had been raped, Bates replied, "I told it just like Victoria did because she said we might have to stay in jail if we did not frame up a story after crossing a state line with men."
[82] "I'm interested", Leibowitz argued, "solely in seeing that that poor, moronic colored boy over there and his co-defendants in the other cases get a square shake of the dice, because I believe, before God, they are the victims of a dastardly frame-up.
[85] Attorney General Knight delivered his rebuttal, roaring that if the jury found Haywood not guilty, they ought to "put a garland of roses around his neck, give him a supper, and send him to New York City."
[88] Irwin "Red" Craig (died 1970) (nicknamed from the color of his hair) was the sole juror to refuse to impose the death penalty in the retrial of Haywood Patterson, one of the Scottsboro Boys, in what was then the small town of Decatur, Alabama.
"[88] The defense moved for a retrial and, believing the defendants innocent, Judge James Edwin Horton agreed to set aside the guilty verdict for Patterson.
[89] Judge Horton heard arguments on the motion for a new trial in the Limestone County Court House in Athens, Alabama, where he read his decision to the astonished defense and a furious Knight: These women are shown ... to have falsely accused two Negroes ...
The defense moved for another change of venue, submitting affidavits in which hundreds of residents stated their intense dislike for the defendants, to show there was "overwhelming prejudice" against them.
Leibowitz called in a handwriting expert, who testified that names identified as African American had been added later to the list, and signed by former Jury Commissioner Morgan.
It was the basis for the court's finding in Norris v. Alabama (1935), that exclusion of African American grand jurors had occurred, violating the due process clause of the Constitution.
Judge Callahan repeatedly interrupted Leibowitz's cross-examination of Price, calling defense questions "arguing with the witness", "immaterial", "useless", "a waste of time", and even "illegal".
He had testified in the first Decatur trial that Price and Bates had had sex with him and Gilley in the hobo jungle in Chattanooga prior to the alleged rapes, which could account for the semen found in the women.
"[108] For his summation, solicitor Wade Wright reviewed the testimony and warned the jury, "that this crime could have happened to any woman, even though she was riding in a parlor car, instead of the boxcar.
"[104] Solicitor H. G. Bailey reminded the jury that the law presumed Patterson innocent, even if what Gilley and Price had described was "as sordid as ever a human tongue has uttered."
Judge Callahan sustained prosecution objections to large portions of it, most significantly the part where she said that she and Price both had sex voluntarily in Chattanooga the night before the alleged rapes.
[129] Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South (1969) by Dan T. Carter was widely thought to be authoritative, but it wrongly asserted that Price and Bates were dead.
[133] According to a news story, "An 87-year-old black man who attended the ceremony recalled that the mob scene following the Boys' arrest was frightening and that death threats were leveled against the jailed suspects.
[136][137] Governor Robert J. Bentley said to the press that day: While we could not take back what happened to the Scottsboro Boys 80 years ago, we found a way to make it right moving forward.
