- Person
- Samuel Leibowitz
- Lived
- 1893–1978
- Field
- Criminal law
- From
- Romanian-American
The story
By the early 1930s Samuel Leibowitz, the son of Romanian Jewish immigrants raised on New York's Lower East Side, was one of the most successful criminal lawyers in America. According to PBS, he had not lost a case in fifteen years, and the Famous Trials project at the University of Missouri–Kansas City records 77 acquittals and one hung jury in 78 murder trials. Some considered him the next Clarence Darrow. He was a mainstream Democrat with no connection to radical causes.
In 1931 nine young Black men had been falsely accused of rape and sentenced to death in Scottsboro, Alabama. The International Labor Defense, a Communist Party affiliate, had taken charge of their appeals and won a new trial from the US Supreme Court in 1932. So it surprised many people when the ILD asked Leibowitz to lead the defence. They offered no fee.
Leibowitz read the record of the first trials and became convinced the young men were innocent; he believed the medical evidence alone proved it. He wrote to the organisation that they did not share the same political and economic views, but that he would take the case to defend "the basic rights of man".
His wife and many friends urged him not to, warning that he had no chance in the Alabama of the 1930s. He accepted anyway, and worked on the cases for four years without pay or reimbursement for most of his expenses. The choice of a respected, non-Communist lawyer convinced many Americans that the defence was a serious fight for justice rather than a political campaign. When two ILD lawyers were later charged with trying to bribe the accuser, Leibowitz broke with them angrily, determined to keep the defence above reproach.
His decision changed the course of the case. Over the next four years he challenged Alabama's all-white juries, won the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Norris v. Alabama in 1935, and in 1937 saw charges dropped against four of the defendants. The principle he defended, that every accused person deserves a fair trial before a fair jury, became part of American constitutional law.
Why it matters
Leibowitz's decision gave the Scottsboro defendants one of the country's best trial lawyers and convinced many Americans that the defence was a serious fight for justice.
About Samuel Leibowitz
Romanian-born New York trial lawyer who defended the Scottsboro Boys without pay and won the Supreme Court ruling that barred the exclusion of Black citizens from juries.
More about Samuel Leibowitz
- Samuel Leibowitz defied death threats to defend his clientsThreatened with death in Decatur, Alabama, and guarded by the National Guard, Samuel Leibowitz vowed to defend the Scottsboro Boys "until hell freezes over".
- Samuel Leibowitz insisted a Black witness be called "Mr."In the Scottsboro trials, Samuel Leibowitz asked the prosecution to address a Black witness as "Mr. Sandford" rather than by his first name, defying courtroom custom in Alabama.
- Samuel Leibowitz became a judge who took on organised crimeElected a Brooklyn judge in 1940, Samuel Leibowitz served nearly three decades on the bench, hearing gang and organised crime cases and rooting out corrupt officials.
- Samuel Leibowitz saved a mentally ill man from executionIn 1937 Samuel Leibowitz defended Robert Irwin, a former mental patient accused of triple murder, and negotiated a plea that spared him the death penalty.
- Samuel Leibowitz defended the Scottsboro Boys without a feeSamuel Leibowitz defended the Scottsboro Boys without a fee and won Norris v. Alabama, the 1935 ruling that Alabama's exclusion of Black jurors was unconstitutional.
Sources
- Scottsboro Defense Attorney: Samuel Leibowitz PBS American Experience
- Samuel Leibowitz Wikipedia
- The Scottsboro Boys Trials: An Account Famous Trials, UMKC School of Law
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.