The Scottsboro Trials
In March 1931, nine young black men were removed from a train and arrested in Jackson County, Alabama, and then falsely accused of rape. All nine were convicted by all-white juries and sentenced to be executed, but the verdicts were overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in November 1932. Over the next several years, the defendants would undergo numerous trials, reversals, and new trials. The case would become one of the most infamous miscarriages of justice in U.S. history. On April 19, 2013, Alabama governor Robert Bentley signed an historic document pardoning all of the men posthumously.
