Scottsboro Boys Essay

Perhaps, what is most unjust is how long it took for justice to actually be served. Eugene Williams, Roy Wright, Willie Robertson, and Olen Montgomery were the first of the nine to be released from prison. However, the same evidence that freed these four condemned the other five. Until now, there had been a national understanding that either all nine boys were innocent or guilty. Instead, there was split that left people lacking faith in the Alabama state government. The admission of the innocence of these boys raised questions such as why they had been in prison for six years if there innocence was so clear. It would take more than forty years for the last Scottsboro boy, Clarence Norris, to be pardoned by Alabama. However, the one
Without the appeal to the Supreme Court, the Scottsboro appeal would have been dead in the water. It was only due to the Supreme Court that the Scottsboro boys were able to make their appeal with a competent and well-prepared counsel under the due process of law, which were the rights established in this case.
In a case such as this one, it is difficult to find a hero. One could make a case for the ILD, without whom the Scottsboro boys would have never been able to attract enough attention to obtain Samuel Leibowitz as counsel. However, as far as hero goes, Leibowitz comes pretty close in this instance. Unlike the Communist party, he is not working this case because of his own agenda. Leibowitz worked this case tirelessly and for several years. Despite his clashes with Callahan and his disgust with the corrupt Alabamian justice system, Leibowitz refused to retire from the case when given the opportunity. He argued that the boys were “his responsibility” (page 357). Leibowitz made it very clear when Chalmers wished to replace him with southern lawyers that he would not step down unless he made sure that the boys’ interests were safeguarded. This was noble of Leibowitz considering the physical, emotional, and mental toll that this trial took on