Thomas E. Knight, Jr. (June 19, 1898 – May 17, 1937) was an American lawyer and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

who served as the 13th Lieutenant Governor of

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,765 ...

from 1935 to 1937, as well as the 19th Attorney General of Alabama from 1931 to 1935. He was a native of

Greensboro, Alabama Greensboro is a city in Hale County, Alabama, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 2,497, down from 2,731 at the 2000 census. The city is the county seat of Hale County, Alabama, which was not organized until 1867. It is part o ...

. Knight was the prosecutor in the Scottsboro trials in the 1930s; as the Attorney General, he also represented the State before the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

in the three cases stemming from the trials: '' Powell v. Alabama'', in 1932; and '' Norris v. Alabama'' and '' Patterson v. Alabama'', both in 1935. Knight died suddenly on May 17, 1937, in Montgomery,

, due to complications from kidney and liver conditions.

Popular culture

Knight was portrayed by actor Bill Sage in the 2006 movie ''

Heavens Fall ''Heavens Fall'' is a 2006 American film based on the Scottsboro Boys incident of 1931. Plot In the film, two young white women (portrayed by Leelee Sobieski and Azura Skye) accuse nine black youths of rape in the segregated South. Timothy H ...

'', opposing

Timothy Hutton Timothy Tarquin Hutton (born August 16, 1960) is an American actor and film director. He is the youngest recipient of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, which he won at age 20 for his performance as Conrad Jarrett in ''Ordinary People ...

, starring as Scottsboro Boys defense attorney Samuel Leibowitz. Knight was portrayed by actor

Ken Kercheval Kenneth Marine Kercheval (July 15, 1935 – April 21, 2019) was an American actor, best known for his role as Cliff Barnes on the television series ''Dallas'' and its 2012 revival. Early life Kercheval was born on July 15, 1935, in Wolcottvill ...

in the 1976 TV movie ''Judge Horton and the Scottsboro Boys''.

External links

Biography
by the Alabama Department of Archives & History

by UMKC School of Law

References

Lieutenant Governors of Alabama 1898 births 1937 deaths People from Greensboro, Alabama Alabama lawyers Alabama Democrats Alabama Attorneys General 20th-century American politicians 20th-century American lawyers {{Alabama-politician-stub