Powell v. Alabama: Scottsboro Case Establishes Right to Counsel

The Supreme Court reversed the Scottsboro Boys' convictions in Powell v. Alabama (1932), ruling 7–2 that the defendants had been denied effective right to counsel under the Fourteenth Amendment. Justice Sutherland wrote that the appointment of counsel was so casual as to be no appointment at all. The ruling was a landmark expansion of the right to counsel and the first time the Supreme Court used the 14th Amendment to apply a Bill of Rights protection to state criminal proceedings, though it did not immediately free the defendants.