Patterson v. Alabama

Patterson v. Alabama
L. Ed. 1082
Case history
Prior	Patterson v. State, 229 Ala. 270, 156 So. 567 (1934); cert. granted, 293 U.S. 554 (1935).
Holding
An African-American defendant is denied due process rights if the jury pool excludes African Americans.
Court membership
Chief Justice Charles E. Hughes Associate Justices Pierce Butler · Harlan F. Stone Owen Roberts · Benjamin N. Cardozo
Case opinion
Majority	Hughes, joined by Van Devanter, Brandeis, Sutherland, Butler, Stone, Roberts, Cardozo
McReynolds took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
Laws applied
amends. I, XIV

Patterson v. Alabama, 294 U.S. 600 (1935), was a

Background

This case was the second landmark decision arising out of the

A second set of trials was then held in Decatur, Alabama. In spite of lack of evidence, the jury sentenced Patterson to death in the electric chair. Judge James Edwin Horton overturned the verdict, and a third trial was held in 1933. The third trial also resulted in a death penalty verdict. No African Americans were included in any of the juries, nor were any ever considered for jury duty in Alabama. This decision was appealed to the Supreme Court, on the basis that the absence of African Americans from the jury pool denied the defendants due process.

The Supreme Court agreed, and the convictions were overturned.

In 1936, the defendants were tried, some for the fourth time, again for rape. In this trial, the verdicts were again guilty, but sentences were long prison terms rather than the death penalty.

Notes and references

• ISBN 978-1-59740-102-9
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• Works related to Patterson v. Alabama at Wikisource
• Text of Patterson v. Alabama, 294 U.S. 600 (1935) is available from: Justia  Library of Congress 
• Norris v. Alabama - 294 U.S. 587 (1935)