nails Trump’s legal team to the wall — calling out the offensive ridiculousness of trying to equate Trump’s case with the Powell v. Alabama case, also known as the Scottsboro Boys case where 9 Black teenagers were tried on charges of raping 2 white women just days after their indictments, without time to retain their chosen attorneys. During the hearing on Monday, Judge Chutkan sought to calm Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Mr. Lauro, cautioning him twice to turn down the “temperature” when he was speaking. At one point, she appeared upset by the way that Mr. Lauro in his filings about the trial schedule had cited Powell v. Alabama, a landmark 1932 Supreme Court decision that reversed the convictions of the Scottsboro Boys, nine young Black men who were falsely accused of raping a white woman. Judge Chutkan pointed out that Mr. Trump would face trial in seven months after he was indicted, compared with only one week in the Alabama case. The two cases, she added, were “profoundly different” at their core.

Source: New York Times August 30, 2023 01:15 UTC