On June 22, 1933, Judge James Horton of Athens set aside the verdict and death sentence of an all-white jury that had found Haywood Patterson, an African American, guilty of raping two white women. Patterson was one of nine black youths falsely accused of rape in March 1931 and known as the Scottsboro Boys. Horton's decision to order a new trial for Patterson was a major blow to Jim Crow justice. Although northern newspapers called him Lincolnesque, Horton said he was doing his sacred duty by upholding the dignity and integrity of the court. He faced threats on his life, and supremacists branded him a traitor for overturning the verdict. Born Jan. 4, 1878, Horton married Anna Hobbs in 1922 and served as judge of Alabama's 8th Judicial Circuit from 1922 until 1934. Though his ruling ended his public career, he spent his remaining years farming and raising award-winning Aberdeen-Angus cattle. In 1938 he moved his family from Athens to Greenbrier, Ala., and named his farm Macedon after his three sons, Mac, Ed, and Don. NBC's 1976 movie, Judge Horton and the Scottsboro Boys, highlighted his role in the case. His judicial philosophy was summed up in a phrase he learned from his mother: Let Justice Be Done Though the Heavens May Fall.