The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-11-07
new TRIALS FOR SEVEN
NEGROES IN SC0TTSBORO
ASSAULT CASE ORDERED
Supreme Court of U. S.
CritiCiSeS Conduct of
Alabama Court.
DENIED LEGAL AID
Youths Accused of Attacks
on White Girls Were
Facing Death.

BU United Press
WASHINGTON, Nov: T.
New trials for the seven
Negro youths sentenced to
death in the Scottsboro as
sault cases were granted to-
day by the United States SUI
preme court.
The decision was read in the dig
nified quiet of the supreme court
chamber after series of disturb
aLces in the capital plaza outside
had resulted in injury to four po-
lice officers, and the arrest of twelve
men and women who had demon
strated on behalf of the ScottSboro
defendants.
The opinion cauStically criticised
the conduct of trials of the young,
illiterate, ignorant" defendants at
Scottsboro, Ala.
Failure of the youths to obtain
adequate legal representation was
given as the courts chief concern in
reversing the decision of the Ala
bama supreme court.
The Alabama court had held the
original trials we're fair, in spite
of the presence of armed militia
and a hostile public attitude.
The opinion was delivered by
Justice George Sutherland. He re-
viewed the history of the case and
the Negroes contentious that they
had been denied fair trials.
Hostility at Trial
Sutherland said that there was
no question excepting that the at
mosphere was one of tension and
hostility"
1t was the duty of the trial court
to see the defendants had fair
trial, he continued, noting that the
defendants were boys" illiterate,
and apparently ignorant.
Referring to the claim that the
Negroes had not been allowed to
choose their counsel, Sutherland re-
called that they quickly had been
able to obtain excellent legal repre-
sentation on appeal.
The opinion termed the trial
courts appointment of all members
of the local bar to represent the de-
PENDANTS as a gesture"
Even intelligent persons could not
guide themselves through the in
tricacieS of legal procedure and pro-
tect their rights, Sutherland said,
adding that it was then so much
more essential for illiterate persons
such as the defendants to have ade-
cuate counsel.
World Agitated Over Case
Five yeerS ago the guilt or inno-
cence of Sacco and Vanzetti was be-
ing debated in every part of the
civilized world.
Today almost as many people are
Enthusiastically or wrongly
about the Scottsboro cases and the
quality of justice administered by
the Alabama courts to the seven
Negro boys.
A year ago last March two white
girls and number of white men
and Negroes were cumming a ride
on long freight train going from
Chattanooga toward Alabama.
Somewhere along the route, a
fight occurred between Negroes and
white men; the whites were thrown
from the train and complained to
the authorities about it; at Paint
Rock, Ala, special sheriff's posse
stopped the train and arrested all
the Negroes found on it. Those
facts are not in dispute.
Assault Claimed by Girls
But at Paint Rock the officers dis
covered the two girls on the train
dressed in overalls, and from that
point stories of what occurred be-
fore and after the arrest vary
widely.
The men. who were arrested, said
they had not even been involved in
the fight with white men which
took place in an open gravel car
somewhere in the length of the
forty-car train.
Several of them said they had
seen the fighting. One was close
enough so that he heard a call for
help, he said, and kept a white boy
from falling off the train.
Two others didn't know there had
been fight. One had been lying.
sick, IN box car, he said, and a
doctor found he really was sick.
Another was on his way to a
clinic to have his eyes fixed. OF
the nine boys arrested. four were
friends. The others said they had
not seen each other before the tain
was stopped.
Tell of Fierce Fight
But the two white girls. Victoria
Price and Ruby Bates, charged that
the Negro boys assaulted them ca
the train.
They said they had been riding in
the gravel car with seven or eight
white boys when about twelve
Negroes suddenly had swarmed down
from box car, had fought with
the white boys and thrown all but
one of the train, and had then held
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THOSE WERE HAPPY DAYS
The days when ~WiIp and
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