Gov. Robert Bentley and The Scottsboro Boys

     Alabama's Governor has any number of decisions before him that are of some historic interest: his formal reaction to Obamacare, his decisions regarding the Departments of Mental Health and Corrections and more.
     But in terms of immediate international interest, few can match a recommendation from the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles that he posthumously pardon the remaining eight "Scottsboro Boys". 
     Word of the possibility came today from an unlikely source: Alabama Heritage Magazine. It had just published an article about the infamous case, including the pardon issued in 1976 to Clarence Norris, the last living member of the group of men who had been convicted of raping two white woman on board a train in 1931.

     Today, the magazine learned that a petition to pardon the other eight, Andy Wright, Haywood Patterson, Olen Montgomery, Willlie Roberson, Ozzie Powell, Charlie Weems, Eugene Williams and Roy Wright has been passed from the Parole Board to the Governor for a decision. The magazine, who's focus has always been the distant past, suddenly had a scoop on a very present day issue in their hands! 
     The Scottsboro Boys were arrested on false accusations a dozen years before Robert Bentley was born. Will he sign the papers pardoning the men? Is there any political loss or gain to be realized 80 years later? Or will his decision be made purely on doing the right thing?

[Note: learn more about the case here.]
[UPDATE: The Governor says he's trying to find legal authority to make it happen...]