www.CharlesJeromeWare.com ("We fight. You win.")
Too little, too late?
Alabama lawmakers on Thursday, April 4th, 2013 voted to issue posthumous pardons to the 9 black teenage boys who were wrongly convicted by all-white juries of allegedly raping two white women more than 80 years ago in racist and segregated Alabama.
Not only were the juries stacked with racist whites, all of the prosecution witnesses committed perjury against the nine Black teenagers who eventually became known as the "Scottsboro Boys" because they were arrested and railroaded in the Scottsboro, Alabama area.
The bill setting up a procedure to pardon the group, known as the "Scottsboro Boys", must be signed by Gov. Robert Bentley to become law. He plans to study the legislation but has said he favors the pardons.
All but the youngest of the group, whose ages ranged from 13 to 19, were sent to death row after their convictions by all-white juries, though all were eventually freed.
The case became synonymous with racial injustice and set important legal precedents, including Supreme Court rulings guaranteeing the right to effective counsel and barring the practice of keeping blacks off juror rolls.
The last of the men died in 1989.
[topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/Friday, April 5, 2013; Associated Press (AP)/4-5-2013/"Alabama: Bill Pardoning Scottsboro Boys Passes"]
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