By Chris Hoenig
Haywood Patterson, Charles Weems and Andy Wright fought a racist legal system for decades, serving prison time for a crime they didn’t commit. On Thursday, they finally had their names cleared.
The Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles voted unanimously to approve posthumous pardons for the trio, making them the last of the Scottsboro Boys to be legally absolved of rape charges that stole the national spotlight and stand as one of the turning points for equal protection in American history.
