1. Dialogue on John Adams and His Legacy
Part 2
Scottsboro:
The Right to Counsel

2. What do you know about the United States in the 1930s?
Have you heard the term Jim Crow? What does it mean?

3. What were the charges against the Scottsboro Boys in their first trials in 1931?

4. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

5. Do you think the Scottsboro defendants received a “speedy” trial as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment?
Did they “have the Assistance of Counsel?”

6. Would anyone convicted of rape in the United States today be sentenced to death for that crime? Do you think that sentence is ever justified for someone committing rape?

7. What is an appeal?
What is its purpose?

8. What would happen if judicial decisions in the United States could not be appealed?
What would have happened in the case of the Scottsboro defendants?