Scottsboro boys given posthumous pardon

Nov. 21 (UPI) -- More than 80 years after nine young African American boys were arrested and accused of rape in Alabama, the state's parole board awarded posthumous pardons to the last three of the so-called Scottsboro Boys.

The pardons were made possible after the Alabama legislature passed a law allowing such actions for cases more than 75 years old, aimed directly at finally clearing the names of Haywood Patterson, Charlie Weems and Andy Wright.

Thursday, the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles did just that, voting unanimously to pardon the three men who were convicted of raping two white women on a train on March 25, 1931.

“This decision will give them a final peace in their graves, wherever they are,” said Sheila Washington, director of the Scottsboro Museum and Cultural Center in Scottsboro, which urged the petition.

Patterson, Weems, Wright and Clarence Norris were convicted three times, twice by all-white juries, of rape charges, despite one of the alleged victims admitting the story was made up.

The first trial took place in Scottsboro, Ala., giving the group its infamous name. All but 13-year-old Roy Wright were sentenced to death, although the Alabama Supreme Court issued indefinite stays of execution just 72 hours before the boys were set to die.

The state eventually dropped charges against five of the defendants. Clarence Norris escaped from prison in 1946 and went into hiding, and he was eventually pardoned by Gov. George C. Wallace in 1976.

[Montgomery Advertiser] [WTVY]