Scottsboro Boys arrested

On March 25, 1931, nine black teenagers were arrested in Paint Rock, Alabama for allegedly raping two white women. Twelve days later, the young men were put on trial in the nearby town of Scottsboro. After numerous the proceedings culminated in two landmark decisions by the US Supreme Court, Powell v. Alabama and Norris v. Alabama. Ultimately, the death sentences issued by the jury were overturned, but the defendants were nonetheless sent to prison.

The trials of the Scottsboro Boys have come to symbolize the role of race in the criminal justice system of the Jim Crow South. Read a history of the trials of the Scottsboro Boys, as composed by Law Professor Douglas O. Linder of the University of Missouri – Kansas City School of Law.

THIS DAY @ LAW

US signed peace treaty with Germany ending World War I

On August 25, 1921, the United States, which never ratified the Versailles Treaty ending World War I, finally signed its own peace treaties with Germany, Austria and Hungary.

Former East Germany leader convicted of manslaughter for Berlin Wall policy

On August 25, 1997, Egon Krenz, the former of East Germany was convicted of manslaughter for promulgating a policy of shooting any East Germans who attempted to cross the Berlin Wall. Krenz was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison, of which he served four before being released into retirement from political life.