Powell v. Alabama

Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45 (1932) was a United States Supreme Court decision which decided that in a capital trial court the defendant must be designated counsel if the judge feels that the accused is incapable of leading his own defense.

Prior history

The case stems from a crime that occured in 1931. Nine African Americans, Charlie Weems, Ozie Powell, Clarence Norris, Olen Montgomery, Willie Roberson, Haywood Patterson, Andy and Roy Wright, Eugene Williams, were accused of raping two white women in a freight car while passing through the state of Alabama. The group was commonly known as Scottsborough Boys. All of them, but Roy Wright, were sentenced to death in a one day trial. The ruling was appealed on the grounds that group was not provided adequate legal counsel. The Alabama Supreme Court ruled 6-to-1 that the trial was fair and it was appealed to the Supreme Court (the strongly dissenting opinion was from the Chief Justice Anderson).

The bench

Opinion

• Written by: Justice George Sutherland
  • Joined by: Chief Justice Charles E. Hughes and Justices Willis Van Devanter, Harlan Fiske Stone, Owen J. Roberts, Louis D. Brandeis and Benjamin N. Cardozo.

Dissenting

• Written by: Justice Pierce Butler
  • Joined by: Justice James C. McReynolds

Justices Devanter, McReynolds, Sutherland and Butler were members of the so called Four Horsemen a group that opposed Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal.

External links

• OYEZ Written Supreme Court Opinion
• Summary of Powell v. Alabama