HUNTSVILLE, Alabama _ Alabama has made some giant strides in undoing its ugly racist past.
It can make another major step by pardoning - posthumously - defendants from the infamous 1931 "Scottsboro Boys" case in which nine black teenagers were convicted of raping two white women on a train near Scottsboro.
Ensuing trials and retrials in Scottsboro and Decatur drew worldwide attention and the prosecution was held up as the epitome of Southern prejudice against blacks.
One defendant, Clarence Norris, was pardoned in 1976.
Now, the founder of the Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center in Scottsboro is petitioning Gov. Robert Bentley to pardon the others.
"A resolution of pardon will provide a chance to affirm our mutual interests in supporting justice and equality in 21st Century Alabama," states the Aug. 15. pardon request signed by museum founder Sheila Washington and about a dozen others, mostly from academia.
A pardon wouldn't help the accused. All are dead. But it would correct a wrong and clear their names for their descendants.
All but one of the young defendants received the death penalty after a trial in Scottsboro where an estimated 10,000 whites gathered in the town of less than 2,000 for the trial's opening day,
Even before the retrials during the 1930s had ended, one of the victims, Ruby Bates, testified she had not been molested by the youths. Several witnesses also recanted their stories. Post trial legal experts agree all of the young men were wrongfully convicted on flimsy evidence.
Four eventually got their charges dropped, four received lengthy prison sentences and one, Norris, was pardoned with the support of segregationist-turned-repentant Gov. George Wallace.
In the pardoning hearing before Alabama's pardons and parole board, then-Attorney General Bill Baxley called Norris' years of incarceration for a crime he did not commit "a travesty of justice."
Bentley's office says the governor supports the pardon request but lacks the authority to issue posthumous pardons. The state parole board doesn't grant posthumous pardons, a spokesman there said.
In 2006, the Legislature passed the "Rosa Parks Law" to allow for pardons for people convicted of violating the law during protests against segregation. Relatives can apply for the deceased to obtain pardons.
Bentley spokesman Jeremy King said the governor would support the Legislature passing a law similar to that.
We see no harm in extending that pardoning authority if governors and parole boards will use it responsibly.
Pardons should not be granted haphazardly or for political purposes. Victims must also be considered.
When Norris was pardoned, there was talk of trying to do something for Andy and Roy Wright, Haywood Patterson, Olen Montgomery, Charlie Weems, Ozie Powell, William Robertson and Eugene Williams, but nothing happened. Norris died in 1989.
As difficult as it is to imagine, some good came from the sordid Scottsboro Boys case.
The trials ultimately spawned two landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions. One said criminal defendants are entitled to effective counsel. The other declared that blacks could not be systematically excluded from criminal juries.
Sometimes, actions must be taken simply because it's the right thing to do. Such was the case in 1993 when Gov. Jim Folsom issued an executive order to keep the Confederate Battle Flag off the state Capitol dome. That wasn't a slap at history. Wallace put the flag there as a sign of defiance in the face of federal orders to integrate Alabama's public schools.
Pardoning the Scottsboro Boys would likewise undo a wrong. "It's never too late to correct an injustice," said Birmingham lawyer Richard Jaffe. Even 80 years after the fact.
By John Peck for the editorial board. Email: firstname.lastname@example.org