''Patterson v. Alabama'', 294 U.S. 600 (1935), was a

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 ...

case which held that an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

defendant is denied due process rights if the jury pool excludes African-Americans.

Background

This case was the second landmark decision arising out of the Scottsboro Boys trials (the first was the 1932 case, '' Powell v. Alabama''). Haywood Patterson, along with several other African-American defendants, were tried for raping two white women in 1931 in Scottsboro, Alabama. The trials were rushed, there was virtually no legal counsel, and no African-Americans were permitted in the jury. All defendants, including Patterson, were convicted. The

Communist Party of the United States The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...

assisted the defendants and appealed to the Supreme Court, which overturned the convictions in 1932 (in the '' Powell v. Alabama'' decision) due to lack of legal counsel. A second set of trials was then held in

Decatur, Alabama Decatur (dɪˈkeɪtə(r)) is the largest city and county seat of Morgan County (with a portion also in Limestone County) in the U.S. state of Alabama. Nicknamed "The River City", it is located in northern Alabama on the banks of Wheeler La ...

. In spite of lack of evidence, the jury sentenced Patterson to death in the electric chair. Judge James Edwin Horton overturned the verdict, and a third trial was held in 1933. The third trial also resulted in a death penalty verdict. No African Americans were included in any of the juries, nor were any ever considered for jury duty in Alabama. This decision was appealed to the Supreme Court, on the basis that the absence of African Americans from the jury pool denied the defendants due process. The Supreme Court agreed, and the convictions were overturned. In 1936, the defendants were tried, some for the fourth time, again for rape. In this trial, the verdicts were again guilty, but sentences were long prison terms rather than the death penalty.

Notes and references

External links

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Norris v. Alabama - 294 U.S. 587 (1935)
{{Equal protection and criminal procedure, jury, state=expanded 1935 in United States case law American Civil Liberties Union litigation Civil rights movement case law United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Hughes Court African-American history of Alabama 1935 in Alabama Legal history of Alabama United States racial discrimination case law