Legislature Votes to Pardon Scottsboro Boys The Alabama Legislature has voted to pardon the Scottsboro Boys, more than 80 years after the nine young black men were convicted by all-white juries of raping two white women. The bill still must be signed by Gov. Robert Bentley to become law. The governor's press secretary, Jennifer Ardis, says Bentley will study the legislation. But he has said he favors the pardons. The House approved the legislation Thursday morning in a unanimous vote. The measure already had been unanimously passed by the Senate. The nine black youths from Georgia and Tennessee were accused of raping two white women on a train in north Alabama in 1931. They were convicted by an all-white jury during a racially charged trial in Scottsboro. All but the youngest received a death sentence but later won new trials.