Although he worked as counsel in dozens of notorious trials, Leibowitz is best remembered as counsel for the Scottsboro Boys, nine Southern African-American youths who were falsely accused of rape and sentenced to death in Alabama in 1931. After the US Supreme Court overturned the convictions in Powell v.
Samuel LeibowitzSamuel Leibowitz (1893–1978) was a noted New York attorney who represented the Scottsboro Boys after their initial 1931 trial. Leibowitz represented seventy-eight persons charged with first-degree murder in his fifteen-year career as a criminal defense attorney.
Inside, Leibowitz called each to the stand in turn. Each denied having ever touched Victoria Price or Ruby Bates. The last to take the stand was Haywood Patterson.
Roy Wright's trial ended in a mistrial, not because he was assumed innocent, but because due to his young age the jury could not decide whether the sentence should be death or life imprisonment.
Because of his impeccable record, Leibowitz was hired by the International Labor Defense to defend the young black men accused at Scottsboro; the I.L.D. could hardly be accused of wanting to martyr the boys for their cause after hiring a lawyer that some considered the next Clarence Darrow.
The Scottsboro defendants were ultimately saved from execution, but they languished in prison for years. Even after being released, most never fully recovered from their ordeal. Their story has rightly been called 'an American tragedy.
Describe what happened to Victoria Price. Where did she end up after the trials? After 1937, four of the defendants were in prison for rape, one for assault and four others had been let free. Price was no longer needed to testify and she faded into obscurity.
In the first confusing minutes after the arrests, Ruby Bates whispered to officials that she and her friend, Victoria Price, had been raped by the nine Negroes, who ranged m age from twelve to nineteen. A hasty medical examination revealed evidence of sexual intercourse.
Ruby BatesWho was Leibowitz's surprise female witness? Summarize her testimony. Sam Liebowitz presented his surprise witness, Ruby Bates, who testified that she had made up the whole story of the rape; the prosecutor dismantled her testimony, implying she had been paid off with fancy clothes to testify for the defense.
In 1932 the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the convictions (Powell v. Alabama) on the grounds that the defendants had not received adequate legal counsel in a capital case.