Russell Vs Alabama Essay

Powell V. Alabama came about when nine young black men were on a train traveling through Alabama. There were other white men and women on the train at the time. When a fight broke out on the train some white men were thrown off the train while moving. The train arrived to a station where the police were waiting and were told what happened on the train. The two women on the train said that while on the train the nine young men raped them. The accusations against the nine young black men were never questioned as they were african-american and also they weren’t from Alabama. This case started out in the Alabama State Court where the nine young black men were tried all together with citizens of the town surrounding the courthouse. The Alabama State Court found the men guilty of rape and sentenced them to death except for one who was a juvenile. The case went onto The Supreme Court of Alabama where the original trial was upheld at a ruling 6-1. Chief Justice Anderson was the …show more content…
The case was decided by the US Supreme Court on November 7, 1932. The case was decided by a 7-2 vote in the US Supreme Court. The majority decision was written by Justice George Sutherland where counsel was denied and that there wasn’t a fair trial by a jury where their race was excluded. The 7 votes in the case were; Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, Louis Brandeis, Benjamin Cardozo, Owen Roberts, Harlan Fiske Stone, George Sutherland, and Willis Van DeVanter. There were no concurrent opinions in the case with the majority and the dissenting. The dissenting votes were Pierce Butler and James McReynolds. Justice Butler joined by Justice James McReynolds disagreed with the court’s ruling. They said that there was not enough evidence saying that the previous trials were not fair to the young black men. They also said that they felt as if the laws of the case applied to federal issues, not state