Scottsboro Boys - Decatur Trials

Decatur Trials

When the case, by now a cause celebre, came back to Judge Hawkins, he granted the request for a change of venue. The defense had urged for a move to the city of Birmingham, Alabama, but the case was transferred to the small, rural community of Decatur, Alabama. This was near homes of the alleged victims and in Ku Klux Klan territory.

The American Communist Party maintained control over defense of the case, retaining the New York criminal defense attorney Samuel Leibowitz. He had never lost a murder trial and was a registered Democrat, with no connection to the Communist Party. They kept Joseph Brodsky as the second chair for the trial.

The case was assigned to District Judge James Edwin Horton and tried in Morgan County. His appointment to the case drew local praise. The Judge carried a loaded pistol in his car throughout the time he presided over these cases.

The two years that had passed since the first trials had not dampened community hostility for the Scottsboro Boys. But others felt they were victims of Jim Crow justice.

At the trial, some 100 reporters were seated at the press tables. Hundreds more gathered on the courthouse lawn. National Guard members in plain clothes mingled in the crowd, looking for any sign of trouble. The Sheriff's department brought the defendants to Court in a patrol wagon guarded by two carloads of deputies armed with automatic shotguns.

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. Wright wore street clothes. The Birmingham News described him as "dressed up like a Georgia gigolo."

Leibowitz asserted his trust in the "God fearing people of Decatur and Morgan County" then made a pretrial motion to quash the indictment on the ground that blacks were systematically excluded from the grand jury. Although the motion was denied, this got the issue in the record for future appeals. To this motion, Attorney General Thomas Knight responded, "The State will concede nothing. Put on your case."

Leibowitz called the editor of the Scottsboro weekly newspaper, who testified that he'd never heard of a black juror in Decatur because "They all steal". He next called local jury commissioners to explain the absence of African Americans from Jackson County juries. When Leibowitz accused them of excluding black men from juries, they seemed to not comprehend what he was accusing them of. It was as if the exclusion was unconscious. (Note: Since most blacks could not vote after having been disfranchised by the Alabama constitution, the local juries probably never thought about them as potential jurors, who were limited to voters.)

Leibowitz called local black professionals as witnesses to show they were qualified for jury service. Leibowitz had called a John Sanford, an African American of Scottsboro. When Knight started treating him with disrespect, Leibowitz leapt to his feet and said, "Now listen, Mr. Attorney-General, I've warned you twice about your treatment of my witness. For the last time now, stand back, take your finger out of his eye, and call him mister."

The judge abruptly interrupted Leibowitz While the motion was denied, this legal move later led to an astonishing second decision from the U.S. Supreme Court.