The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-04-11
Abbeal Patterson Verdict;
Seek Trial Delay, Change
of Venue, Pending Appeal
TRIAL OF WEEMS
SET FOR MONDAY
Negro Boy to Be Tried
at Same Lynch Scene

DECATUR, Ala, April TO-
AS reverberations of the temp
est of fury which swept the
country following the verdict
of guilty" in the case of Hay
wood Patterson reached this little
Southern Alabama town, lawyers for
the International Labor Defense
mapped out the next moves to thwart
the executioners.
Immediate appeals are being plan
ned to the state Supreme Court and
ultimately to the U. S. Supreme
Court, which, on November 7 last,
turned the case back for a second
trial, lawyers for the LID announced
here yesterday, just before their de-
parture for New York, where they
will confer with leaders Of the labor
defense organization regarding fur
Their moves.
Fight for Nanne Change
Side by side with the taking Of ar
immediate appeal against the lynch
verdict rendered against Patterson,
the I9-year-old Negro boy, is a de-
mand for change Of venue to Bir-
mingham in the trials Of the remain
ing Scottsboro boys. On Saturday,
while the jury in the Patterson case
was still celebrating" Judge Horton
fatty denied motion made by Jos.
r. Brodsky, defense counsel, for the
change of venue. This fight will be
pushed more energetically than ever,
however, the LID declares.
At the same tirne-while mass pro-
test against the murderous verdict
RACES throughout the country-the de-
Tense is calling for g postponement
of the trials of the remaining Negro
boys until after the appeal in the
Patterson case Is heard in the higher
courts.
1t is doubtful, however, whether the
prosecution-eager to take advantage
Of the lynch atmosphere which it has
succeeded in creating during the past
weeks OF the trial--win permit this
delay
May bar Press At Next Trials
An indication of the rope-and-fas~
got spirit which has been whipped up
here by the prosecution is found in
the report which gained credence to-
day that Judge Horton may exclude
newspapermen from the remainder q
the trials, giving as his reason the
intense feeling" which exists.
Unless the defense wins its fight to
postpone the remaining trials until
after the appeal in the Patterson
case is heard, Charlie Weems, second
OF the innocent Scottsboro boys, will
go on trial in Decatur next Monday
before Judge Horton.
Yesterday the condemned Negro boy
was taken to the jefferson County
Jail at Birmingham, to which the
other Scottsboro boys we're removed
Saturday night when Decatur became
filled with klansmen ready for lynch
action in the event that an acquittal
verdict would be returned in the Pat
terson case.
Although the jury in the Patterson
case was out for nearly 20 hours, II
actually arrived at a verdict Of
guilty in exactly 81 minutes-a
slightly longer time than 1t took the
frame-up jury in the original Scots
boro trial to doom the nine innocent
Negro boys to the electric chair in
the Spring OF 1881.
On the first ballot the jury, II be-
came known today, was unanimous
for conviction. On the second ballot,
which was to determine the degree Of
punishment, the vote was II for elec-
trocution and one for lie inprison-
ment. 1t was the foreman of the
Jury, an architectural craftsman. who
held up his associates for nearly 20
hours, with his insistence that the
young Negro be sentenced to. life inn
prisonment instead Of to the electric
chair.