THE ROARING 20S 1920 1929
SCOTTSBORO TRIALS
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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The conviction was overturned because their lawyer and the amount of time the boys were given to prepare their case was not good enough.
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The conviction was overturned because the lawyer told them to plead guilty.
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The conviction was overturned because the boys admitted to committing the crime.
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None of the above
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Detailed explanation-1: -In 1932 the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the convictions (Powell v. Alabama) on the grounds that the defendants had not received adequate legal counsel in a capital case. The state of Alabama then retried one of the accused and again convicted him.
Detailed explanation-2: -Alabama (1935), the Supreme Court unanimously overturned another conviction on the grounds that African-Americans had been systematically excluded from jury pools, violating the Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial as well as the Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection under the law.
Detailed explanation-3: -The Supreme Court demanded a retrial on the grounds that the young men did not have adequate legal representation. A series of retrials and reconvictions followed and the Scottsboro Boys collectively served more than 100 years in prison.
Detailed explanation-4: -Their trials began 12 days after the alleged crime and, despite ample evidence that they were innocent, eight of the nine were found guilty by all-white juries and sentenced to death in the electric chair.
Detailed explanation-5: -In November 2013, more than eighty years after the conviction of the Scottsboro Boys, the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles granted posthumous pardons to Charlie Weems, Andy Wright and Haywood Patterson in order to formally exonerate them as well.