It would come up during conversations. Visitors would ask him about [why he set aside the Scottsboro verdict], and surely a lot of factors went into it. The way the women testified, you know there was a lot of lawyers that will tell you it's not what a witness says so much on the stand as the way they testify. Whether there was a truthful element in their voice, or whether they were trying to cover up, and I know several times he would get up from the judges chair. He'd walk around the bench and sit down on one of the benches where he could see the faces of the witnesses as they would ask questions and as they answered, and I think the seeds of doubt probably were planted in his mind as to their innocence or guilt of the women by watching them testify, inconsistency in the testimony.

As the trial went on, he began more and more to feel that there was something wrong. Of course by then they had a much better lawyer than they had in Scottsboro. The Scottsboro boys had a much better attorney. Mr. Levowitz, he was a skilled lawyer.

If there was one thing that happened that convinced him of the innocence of the boys, [it] was a young doctor [Dr. Lynch] from Scottsboro. He called my father aside. He was one of the two doctors, and examined the women when they got off the train and were brought into town, and this doctor who had just started his practice in the city of Scottsboro, called my father aside during a break in the trial. He went into a private room near the courtroom, and he told my father in his opinion he had examined the girls, that there was no evidence of rape. That there were just no signs that they had been raped. According to my father, he told him, "well you have got to get on the stand and testify to that." He said "George I can't do it. I am just starting my practice in town. I will have to leave. I'll have to leave my practice. Have to leave Scottsboro. I can't do it." And despite my father's insistence that he testify, he refused, and of course my father couldn't tell him. He could get on there and deny everything.

But that was sort of the straw that broke the camel's back, and my father was convinced I believe from that time on that the boys were innocent and should be free.

Of course as a young boy [my father's decision] meant nothing to me until years later. But I thought it was an in-depth decision carefully crafted. He took the evidence one piece at a time, pointed out witnesses against the girls. I thought it was well written and lawyers have told me that it was certainly one of the best conceived opinions that they had ever read. My father was a highly educated man for that day. He had what I'd call a classical education. He could not express himself well vocally. His ideas always seemed to be ahead of his voice. He stammered a little bit, but when he came to put himself down on paper, he was really good.

My father had run twice or three times without opposition. In 1934, therefore to run against, it didn't take a smart person to know what the issue in the race would be. That would be his hand in that election. It was very important to a lot of people. Particularly for that time. Unemployment, times were poor, people out of work. I think he had decided that because he could not discuss the case, which was on appeal, that it would be very difficult for him to run a race without discussing the trial because there was going to be innuendo by the opposition. But the Limestone County Bar Association passed a resolution and asked him to run again and to support him as a judge, and I believe the Lawrence County Bar did the same thing. So finally they persuaded him to go on and make the race. That he had done the right thing and in their opinion, the lawyers were of course more tuned to the fine points of the trial than the average citizen. So he did go on and make the race and it was the underlying opinion of the race was the way he set aside that verdict. But he was defeated. Defeated by several thousand votes. I forget what it was, and the race was won by a judge from Coleman County which was one of the four counties in the circuit.

So it impacted his election. He had been elected without opposition 12 or 15 years, and this was the first race he had opposition and was defeated. It was not a surprise to him. He knew that it was an uphill battle.

I never heard [my father] comment on the trials from then on. I never heard him criticize the jury that served under him. I mean this is where he was from and where he was raised. He knew the pressure that these people were under, and he disagreed with the verdict. He overturned it, but I never heard him criticize the jury. He praised the National Now the writers in the press criticized Judge Callahan pretty strongly, and some of the legal profession, but that's not to say my father didn't ever say anything about it, but I never heard him tell me.

He had to follow his conscience. That's exactly what he did. He never looked back. He did make the statement that had he not made the decision he did, he didn't think he would have lived as long as he did. He made that statement. So he put that behind him and went on with his life farming, and practiced a little law, did a little work for the TVA, and then in 1940 he moved to the house down here and moved from Athens, and he went farming full time.

This case was constitutionally and socially one of the most important cases in our country's history. Certainly a lot of blacks thinks of this trial as being the thing that motivated them to become active as citizens. There were a lot of precedents being set by this case.

Well, the first two trials you know, I mean the first trial was sent back by the Supreme Court because of inadequate defense counsel. Then my father set aside the second trial, and then the third trial was appealed after they were convicted and set aside because there were no blacks on the jury. So you had several precedents that were set in these trials. I think it's significant that when it was all said and done, that all these boys got out of prison sooner or later.

TOP OF PAGE

COURT TV HOMEPAGE | VERDICTS | FAMOUS CASES | TRIAL TRACKING | LEGAL DOCUMENTS | PROGRAM GUIDE | CTTV STORE | GAMES/CONTEST | LEGAL TERMS | SEARCH | INDEX | HOW TO GET CTTV | COMMENTS