Powell v.

Alabama

Powell v. Alabama is one of the important cases before the Supreme Court of the United
States in which the court acquitted nine young black men who were earlier convicted for
raping two white women on a train in a place close to Scottsboro, Alabama. This was a case
in which the trial was unfair as there was no lawyer provided for the accused. Therefore, the
principles of natural justice was not followed in the case. It was the duty of the judge to
communicate the fact that they are entitled to a proper representation by a lawyer and if they
are unable to find one, then the court has to appoint a lawyer but in no case can there be
proceedings without proper representation.

The facts of the case were as such. In march 1931, nine black men named Charlie Weems,
Ozie Powell, Clarence Norris, Olen Montgomery, Willie Roberson, Haywood Patterson,
Andrew Wright, Leroy Wright and Eugene Williams, who later came to be known as
the Scottsboro Boys, were accused of raping two young white women, Ruby Bates and
Victoria Price. So what happened was that there was a fight that started on the train. There
were seven white men also on the train and the 9 black men got into a fight with those white
men. All the white men were thrown off the train except one. The two women on the train
then went on to make the accusation of them being raped by the nine black men. Later on ,
one of the two women took back what she had stated about the rape. There took place trials
and all the defendants except one of them who was 13 year old were sentenced to death.
Before this, the 9 young men were kept under the protection of the army so as to avoid them
being killed by the public and they were not informed about their right to get proper
representation and also not sufficient time was given to get a lawyer and to establish a proper
defense. They filed a case before the Alabama Supreme Court highlighting the injustice but it
was rejected. The case was finally brought before the United States Supreme Court and this
was the first time that the court had reversed a criminal conviction because of lack of proper
criminal procedure being followed which is not following the principles of natural justice.

The US Supreme court went on to highlight the gross errors in the previous proceedings
which was not following the due process and stating that proper reasonable time should be
given to the accused and also they need to be informed about their rights and specially in this
case as these young men were completely unaware of their rights. The fourteenth amendment
clearly provides for this and not doing so is ignoring the due process which is essential for
any proceedings.