The Criminal Law Society and the Black Law Students Association cordially invite you to a special event for Black History Month on Thursday, February 16 at 4:30 p.m. Professor John C. H. Miller III, J.D. of the University of Alabama will discuss one of America’s most notorious legal events.

Some trials are more than legal disputes; they are seismic conflicts that lay bare fault lines in our very concept of justice. And in these instances, legal aftershocks can reverberate for decades. For the Scottsboro trials in 1930s Alabama at the height of the Great Depression, it’s been 90 years and counting. In addition to sending two cases regarding fundamental rights of accused persons to the Supreme Court, the Scottsboro cases focused tremendous attention on the Jim Crow South and the American justice system. Particularly, they highlighted the danger that prejudice poses — not just for defendants, but to the legal system itself.

John Miller is an Associate Professor and Assistant Director for New College at the University of Alabama. Part of a group that sought to clear the names of the Scottsboro Nine, Miller used his legal training to draft language for legislation authorizing posthumous pardons for Jim Crow Era felonies. Upon the act’s passage, he wrote the successful petition for posthumous pardons of Scottsboro Defendants.