Irwin Craig

Irwin "Red" Craig (died 1970) (nicknamed from the color of his hair) was an American.

In 1933, he was the sole juror to refuse to impose the death penalty in the retrial of Haywood Patterson, one of the Scottsboro Boys, in what was then the small town of Decatur, Alabama. His son, Sonny, later recalled him as saying: "Those young men were innocent; everybody knew that but they were going to be punished for what they didn't do." The Ku Klux Klan staked a burning cross in his family yard.

He was called in to see the judge presiding over that retrial, James Horton, who exhorted him to change his vote to guilty. "If you don't, they will kill you, Red," said the judge. Craig protested: "I can't change my vote, judge." Horton replied: "Don't worry about that, I'll take care of it."[1]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Scottsboro Boys pardon nears as Alabama comes to terms with its past". Retrieved February 13, 2015.
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