By Graydon Rust Alabama 200
November 7, 1932
In Powell v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the original guilty verdicts given to the nine Scottsboro Boys by an all-white jury. Falsely accused of raping two white women on a train, the Scottsboro Boys were not given access to a lawyer until shortly before the trial, with little time to prepare a legal defense. The Supreme Court’s ruling declared that the right to be represented by a lawyer with adequate time to prepare for trial was fundamental to a fair trial. The ruling was the first time the court had reversed a state criminal conviction for a violation of a criminal procedural provision of the U.S. Bill of Rights.
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