FILE -- Members of the Alabama National Guard escort the Scottsboro Boys into the Morgan County Courthouse in this 1933 photo. In 1931, Alabama wanted to execute the black Scottsboro Boys because two white women claimed they were gang raped. Now, state officials are trying to exonerate them and recognize them as victims of injustice in the segregated South. (AP Photo/The Decatur Daily, Ho)
The Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee voted 9-0 Wednesday for a bill that would allow the state parole board to grant posthumous pardons to eight Scottsboro Boys who didn't get pardons before they died. Only one of the nine was pardoned before his death. The bill by Republican Sen. Arthur Orr of Decatur now goes to the Senate for consideration.
Current state law does not permit posthumous pardons.
In 1931, nine black youths were accused of raping two white women aboard a train in north Alabama. One of the women later recanted her story. The case resulted in U.S. Supreme Court rulings requiring that defendants receive effective counsel and forbidding the systematic exclusion of blacks from juries.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
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