just-imagine
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George Stinney, mtoto wa kwanza kuwahi kuhukumiwa kifo na kunyongwa nchini Marekani
George Stinney, mtoto wa kwanza kuwahi kuhukumiwa kifo na kunyongwa nchini Marekani
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Najaribu kuangalia watu wanavyokiuka sheria waziwazi na ccm waisdhani upumbavu wao Magufuli atauficha wote!
Tenda haki bila kujali we ni nani, Hiki kinasikitisha sana ila bila shaka ni wazungu wengine wasiopenda ukandamizaji walivujisha hii
Tenda haki bila kujali we ni nani, Hiki kinasikitisha sana ila bila shaka ni wazungu wengine wasiopenda ukandamizaji walivujisha hii
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dah nimeikuta kule fb, ukatili walofikia hao washenz ata mbwa ana huruma kuliko hao
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Dah RIP George
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mbaya zaidi haki inakuja kutendeka mwaka 2014! inasikitisha
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George Stinney
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
George Stinney
Stinney's mug shot
Born George Junius Stinney, Jr.
October 21, 1929
Alcolu, South Carolina, United States
Died June 16, 1944 (aged 14)
Columbia, South Carolina, United States
Criminal penalty Death by electric chair
Criminal status
Conviction(s) First-degree murder (vacated)
George Junius Stinney, Jr. (October 21, 1929 – June 16, 1944) was an African-American youth convicted at age 14 of murder in 1944 in his home town of Alcolu, South Carolina. He was the youngest person in the United States in the 20th-century to be sentenced to death and to be executed.[1]
Stinney was convicted in 1944 in a two-hour trial[2] of the first-degree murder of two white girls: 11-year-old Betty June Binnicker and 8-year-old Mary Emma Thames. After being arrested, Stinney was said to have confessed to the crime.[3][4] There was no written record of his conviction,[5] and no transcript of the brief trial. He was executed by electric chair.
Since Stinney's conviction and execution, the question of his guilt, the validity of his confession, and the judicial process leading to his execution have been criticized as "suspicious at best and a miscarriage of justice at worst."[6]
A group of people investigated his case, seeking to gain justice for Stinney. In 2013 his family petitioned for a new trial. On December 17, 2014, his conviction was posthumously vacated 70 years after his execution, because the circuit court judge ruled that he had not been given a fair trial; he had no effective defense and his Sixth Amendment rights had been violated. [7][8]
Contents
George Stinney was arrested on suspicion of murdering two girls, Betty June Binnicker, age 11, and Mary Emma Thames, age 8, in their joint home town of Alcolu, Clarendon County, South Carolina, on March 23, 1944.[9] Alcolu was a small, working-class mill town, where white and black neighborhoods were separated by railroad tracks. The girls were last seen riding their bicycles looking for flowers. As they passed the Stinney property, they asked young George Stinney and his sister, Katherine,[10] if they knew where to find "maypops", a local name for passionflowers.[4]
When the girls did not return home, search parties were organized. The bodies of the girls were found the next morning, on the black side of town, in a ditch filled with muddy water. According to an article reported by the wire services on March 24, 1944, and published widely, with the mistake of the boy's name preserved, the sheriff announced the arrest and said that "George Junius" had confessed and led officers to "a hidden piece of iron.".[3][4]
Both girls had suffered blunt force trauma to the face and head.[11] Reports differed as to what kind of weapon had been used.[12] According to a report by the medical examiner, these wounds had been "inflicted by a blunt instrument with a round head, about the size of a hammer." The girls had not been sexually assaulted. The ME noted reported the genitalia of the older girl was slightly bruised.[13]
Trial
Following the arrest of Stinney, his father was fired from his job, and he had to leave with the rest of his family immediately the housing provided by the company. The family feared for their safety. His parents did not see George again before the trial. He had no support during his 81-day confinement and trial; he was kept at a jail in Columbia 50 miles from town because of the risk of lynching.[14]
The entire trial, including jury selection, took one day. Stinney's court-appointed defense counsel was a tax commissioner campaigning for election to local political office. Stinney's lawyer did not challenge the three police officers who testified that Stinney confessed to the two murders, despite this being the only evidence against him. There was no physical evidence linking him to the murders.[5] There was no written record of Stinney's purported confession. At trial, Stinney denied confessing to the crime.[14]
Stinney's trial had an all-white jury. More than 1,000 people crowded the courtroom but no blacks were allowed.[14] As was typical across the South, most black people in South Carolina had been disenfranchised since the turn of the century, and only voters were called as jurors. The society was segregated and blacks were excluded from the political process.
Other than the testimony of the three police officers, at trial prosecutors called three witnesses: the man who discovered the bodies of the two girls, and the two doctors who performed the post-mortem examination. Stinney's counsel did not call any witnesses. Trial presentation lasted two and a half hours. The jury took ten minutes to deliberate, after which they returned with a guilty verdict. The judge sentenced Stinney to death by the electric chair. There is no transcript of the trial.[14]
Stinney's family, churches and the NAACP appealed to the governor for clemency, given the age of the boy. Others urged the governor to let the execution proceed, which he did.[15]
Execution
The execution of George Stinney was carried out at the Central Correctional Institution in Columbia on June 16, 1944, at 7:30 p.m.[11] Standing 5 feet 1 inch (155 cm) tall and weighing just over 90 pounds (40 kg),[9] Stinney was so small compared to the usual adult prisoners that law officers had difficulty securing him to the frame holding the electrodes. The state's adult-sized face-mask did not fit him; as he was hit with the first 2,400 V surge of electricity, the mask covering his face slipped off.[16] Stinney was declared dead within four minutes of the initial electrocution. From the time of the murders until Stinney's execution, 83 days had passed.[11]
Reopening of case
In 2004, George Frierson, a local historian who grew up in Alcolu, started researching the case after reading a newspaper article about it. His work gained the attention of South Carolina lawyers Steve McKenzie and Matt Burgess.[5] In addition, Ray Brown, attorney James Moon, and others contributed countless hours of research and review of historical documents, in finding witnesses and evidence to assist in exonerating young Stinney. Among those who aided the case were the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (CRRJ) at Northeastern University School of Law, who filed an amicus brief with the court in 2014.[17] Frierson and the pro bono lawyers first sought relief through the Pardon and Parole Board of South Carolina.
McKenzie and Burgess, along with lawyer Ray Chandler representing Stinney's family, filed a motion for a new trial on October 25, 2013.[18]
If we can get the case re-opened, we can go to the judge and say, 'There wasn't any reason to convict this child. There was no evidence to present to the jury. There was no transcript. This case needs to be re-opened. This is an injustice that needs to be righted.' I'm pretty optimistic that if we can get the witnesses we need to come forward, we will be successful in court. We hopefully have a witness that's going to say — that's non-family, non-relative witness — who is going to be able to tie all this in and say that they were basically an alibi witness. They were there with Mr. Stinney and this did not occur.
— Steve McKenzie
[citation needed]
George Frierson stated in interviews, "there has been a person that has been named as being the culprit, who is now deceased. And it was said by the family that there was a deathbed confession." Frierson said that the rumored culprit came from a well-known, prominent white family. A member, or members of that family, had served on the initial coroner's inquest jury which had recommended that Stinney be prosecuted.[19]
In its amicus brief, the CRRJ said:
There is compelling evidence that George Stinney was innocent of the crimes for which he was executed in 1944. The prosecutor relied, almost exclusively, on one piece of evidence to obtain a conviction in this capital case: the unrecorded, unsigned “confession” of a 14-year-old child who was deprived of counsel and parental guidance, and whose defense lawyer shockingly failed to call exculpating witnesses or to preserve his right of appeal.[17]
New evidence in the court hearing in January 2014 included testimony by Stinney's siblings that he was with them at the time of the murders. In addition, an affidavit was introduced from the "Reverend Francis Batson, who found the girls and pulled them from the water-filled ditch. In his statement he recalls there was not much blood in or around the ditch, suggesting that they may have been killed elsewhere and moved."[5] Wilford "Johnny" Hunter, who was in prison with Stinney, "testified that the teenager told him he had been made to confess" and always maintained his innocence.[5]
Rather than approving a new trial, on December 17, 2014, circuit court Judge Carmen Mullen vacated Stinney's conviction. She ruled that he had not received a fair trial, as he was not effectively defended and his Sixth Amendment right had been violated.[8][7] The ruling was a rare use of the legal principle of coram nobis. Judge Mullen ruled that his confession was likely coerced and thus inadmissible. She also found that the execution of a 14-year-old constituted "cruel and unusual punishment."[17]
Family members of both Betty Binnicker and Mary Thames expressed disappointment at the ruling. They said that, although they acknowledge his execution at the age of 14 is controversial, they never doubted his guilt. The niece of Betty Binnicker has said she and her family have extensively researched the case, and argues that "people who [just] read these articles in the newspaper don't know the truth."[12] Binnicker's niece said that, in the early 1990s, a police officer who had arrested Stinney had contacted her and said: "Don't you ever believe that boy didn't kill your aunt."[12] These family members said that the claims of a deathbed confession from an individual confessing to the girls' murders have never been substantiated.[12]
The solicitor for the state of South Carolina, who argued for the state against exoneration, was Ernest A. Finney III. He is the son of Ernest A. Finney, Jr., appointed as South Carolina's first African-American State Supreme Court justice since Reconstruction.[20]
Books and films about Stinney's case
David Stout based his first novel Carolina Skeletons (1988) on this case. He was awarded the 1989 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel.[21] Stout suggests in the novel that Stinney, whom he renames Linus Bragg, was innocent. The plot revolves around a fictitious nephew of Stinney/Bragg, who unravels the truth about the case decades later.
The novel was adapted as a 1991 television movie of the same name directed by John Erman, featuring Kenny Blank as Stinney/Bragg. Lou Gossett, Jr. played Stinney's/Bragg's younger brother James.[22]
As of February 2014, another movie about the Stinney case, 83 Days, was planned by Pleroma Studios, written and produced by Ray Brown with Charles Burnett as director.[23][24][25]
George Stinney - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
George Stinney
Stinney's mug shot
Born George Junius Stinney, Jr.
October 21, 1929
Alcolu, South Carolina, United States
Died June 16, 1944 (aged 14)
Columbia, South Carolina, United States
Criminal penalty Death by electric chair
Criminal status
- Executed (1944)
- Conviction vacated (2014)
Conviction(s) First-degree murder (vacated)
George Junius Stinney, Jr. (October 21, 1929 – June 16, 1944) was an African-American youth convicted at age 14 of murder in 1944 in his home town of Alcolu, South Carolina. He was the youngest person in the United States in the 20th-century to be sentenced to death and to be executed.[1]
Stinney was convicted in 1944 in a two-hour trial[2] of the first-degree murder of two white girls: 11-year-old Betty June Binnicker and 8-year-old Mary Emma Thames. After being arrested, Stinney was said to have confessed to the crime.[3][4] There was no written record of his conviction,[5] and no transcript of the brief trial. He was executed by electric chair.
Since Stinney's conviction and execution, the question of his guilt, the validity of his confession, and the judicial process leading to his execution have been criticized as "suspicious at best and a miscarriage of justice at worst."[6]
A group of people investigated his case, seeking to gain justice for Stinney. In 2013 his family petitioned for a new trial. On December 17, 2014, his conviction was posthumously vacated 70 years after his execution, because the circuit court judge ruled that he had not been given a fair trial; he had no effective defense and his Sixth Amendment rights had been violated. [7][8]
Contents
- 1 Case background
- 2 Trial
- 3 Execution
- 4 Reopening of case
- 5 Books and films about Stinney's case
- 6 See also
- 7 References
- 8 Bibliography
George Stinney was arrested on suspicion of murdering two girls, Betty June Binnicker, age 11, and Mary Emma Thames, age 8, in their joint home town of Alcolu, Clarendon County, South Carolina, on March 23, 1944.[9] Alcolu was a small, working-class mill town, where white and black neighborhoods were separated by railroad tracks. The girls were last seen riding their bicycles looking for flowers. As they passed the Stinney property, they asked young George Stinney and his sister, Katherine,[10] if they knew where to find "maypops", a local name for passionflowers.[4]
When the girls did not return home, search parties were organized. The bodies of the girls were found the next morning, on the black side of town, in a ditch filled with muddy water. According to an article reported by the wire services on March 24, 1944, and published widely, with the mistake of the boy's name preserved, the sheriff announced the arrest and said that "George Junius" had confessed and led officers to "a hidden piece of iron.".[3][4]
Both girls had suffered blunt force trauma to the face and head.[11] Reports differed as to what kind of weapon had been used.[12] According to a report by the medical examiner, these wounds had been "inflicted by a blunt instrument with a round head, about the size of a hammer." The girls had not been sexually assaulted. The ME noted reported the genitalia of the older girl was slightly bruised.[13]
Trial
Following the arrest of Stinney, his father was fired from his job, and he had to leave with the rest of his family immediately the housing provided by the company. The family feared for their safety. His parents did not see George again before the trial. He had no support during his 81-day confinement and trial; he was kept at a jail in Columbia 50 miles from town because of the risk of lynching.[14]
The entire trial, including jury selection, took one day. Stinney's court-appointed defense counsel was a tax commissioner campaigning for election to local political office. Stinney's lawyer did not challenge the three police officers who testified that Stinney confessed to the two murders, despite this being the only evidence against him. There was no physical evidence linking him to the murders.[5] There was no written record of Stinney's purported confession. At trial, Stinney denied confessing to the crime.[14]
Stinney's trial had an all-white jury. More than 1,000 people crowded the courtroom but no blacks were allowed.[14] As was typical across the South, most black people in South Carolina had been disenfranchised since the turn of the century, and only voters were called as jurors. The society was segregated and blacks were excluded from the political process.
Other than the testimony of the three police officers, at trial prosecutors called three witnesses: the man who discovered the bodies of the two girls, and the two doctors who performed the post-mortem examination. Stinney's counsel did not call any witnesses. Trial presentation lasted two and a half hours. The jury took ten minutes to deliberate, after which they returned with a guilty verdict. The judge sentenced Stinney to death by the electric chair. There is no transcript of the trial.[14]
Stinney's family, churches and the NAACP appealed to the governor for clemency, given the age of the boy. Others urged the governor to let the execution proceed, which he did.[15]
Execution
The execution of George Stinney was carried out at the Central Correctional Institution in Columbia on June 16, 1944, at 7:30 p.m.[11] Standing 5 feet 1 inch (155 cm) tall and weighing just over 90 pounds (40 kg),[9] Stinney was so small compared to the usual adult prisoners that law officers had difficulty securing him to the frame holding the electrodes. The state's adult-sized face-mask did not fit him; as he was hit with the first 2,400 V surge of electricity, the mask covering his face slipped off.[16] Stinney was declared dead within four minutes of the initial electrocution. From the time of the murders until Stinney's execution, 83 days had passed.[11]
Reopening of case
In 2004, George Frierson, a local historian who grew up in Alcolu, started researching the case after reading a newspaper article about it. His work gained the attention of South Carolina lawyers Steve McKenzie and Matt Burgess.[5] In addition, Ray Brown, attorney James Moon, and others contributed countless hours of research and review of historical documents, in finding witnesses and evidence to assist in exonerating young Stinney. Among those who aided the case were the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (CRRJ) at Northeastern University School of Law, who filed an amicus brief with the court in 2014.[17] Frierson and the pro bono lawyers first sought relief through the Pardon and Parole Board of South Carolina.
McKenzie and Burgess, along with lawyer Ray Chandler representing Stinney's family, filed a motion for a new trial on October 25, 2013.[18]
If we can get the case re-opened, we can go to the judge and say, 'There wasn't any reason to convict this child. There was no evidence to present to the jury. There was no transcript. This case needs to be re-opened. This is an injustice that needs to be righted.' I'm pretty optimistic that if we can get the witnesses we need to come forward, we will be successful in court. We hopefully have a witness that's going to say — that's non-family, non-relative witness — who is going to be able to tie all this in and say that they were basically an alibi witness. They were there with Mr. Stinney and this did not occur.
— Steve McKenzie
[citation needed]
George Frierson stated in interviews, "there has been a person that has been named as being the culprit, who is now deceased. And it was said by the family that there was a deathbed confession." Frierson said that the rumored culprit came from a well-known, prominent white family. A member, or members of that family, had served on the initial coroner's inquest jury which had recommended that Stinney be prosecuted.[19]
In its amicus brief, the CRRJ said:
There is compelling evidence that George Stinney was innocent of the crimes for which he was executed in 1944. The prosecutor relied, almost exclusively, on one piece of evidence to obtain a conviction in this capital case: the unrecorded, unsigned “confession” of a 14-year-old child who was deprived of counsel and parental guidance, and whose defense lawyer shockingly failed to call exculpating witnesses or to preserve his right of appeal.[17]
New evidence in the court hearing in January 2014 included testimony by Stinney's siblings that he was with them at the time of the murders. In addition, an affidavit was introduced from the "Reverend Francis Batson, who found the girls and pulled them from the water-filled ditch. In his statement he recalls there was not much blood in or around the ditch, suggesting that they may have been killed elsewhere and moved."[5] Wilford "Johnny" Hunter, who was in prison with Stinney, "testified that the teenager told him he had been made to confess" and always maintained his innocence.[5]
Rather than approving a new trial, on December 17, 2014, circuit court Judge Carmen Mullen vacated Stinney's conviction. She ruled that he had not received a fair trial, as he was not effectively defended and his Sixth Amendment right had been violated.[8][7] The ruling was a rare use of the legal principle of coram nobis. Judge Mullen ruled that his confession was likely coerced and thus inadmissible. She also found that the execution of a 14-year-old constituted "cruel and unusual punishment."[17]
Family members of both Betty Binnicker and Mary Thames expressed disappointment at the ruling. They said that, although they acknowledge his execution at the age of 14 is controversial, they never doubted his guilt. The niece of Betty Binnicker has said she and her family have extensively researched the case, and argues that "people who [just] read these articles in the newspaper don't know the truth."[12] Binnicker's niece said that, in the early 1990s, a police officer who had arrested Stinney had contacted her and said: "Don't you ever believe that boy didn't kill your aunt."[12] These family members said that the claims of a deathbed confession from an individual confessing to the girls' murders have never been substantiated.[12]
The solicitor for the state of South Carolina, who argued for the state against exoneration, was Ernest A. Finney III. He is the son of Ernest A. Finney, Jr., appointed as South Carolina's first African-American State Supreme Court justice since Reconstruction.[20]
Books and films about Stinney's case
David Stout based his first novel Carolina Skeletons (1988) on this case. He was awarded the 1989 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel.[21] Stout suggests in the novel that Stinney, whom he renames Linus Bragg, was innocent. The plot revolves around a fictitious nephew of Stinney/Bragg, who unravels the truth about the case decades later.
The novel was adapted as a 1991 television movie of the same name directed by John Erman, featuring Kenny Blank as Stinney/Bragg. Lou Gossett, Jr. played Stinney's/Bragg's younger brother James.[22]
As of February 2014, another movie about the Stinney case, 83 Days, was planned by Pleroma Studios, written and produced by Ray Brown with Charles Burnett as director.[23][24][25]
George Stinney - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bavaria
JF-Expert Member
- Jun 14, 2011
- 53,092
- 53,496
Exonerated, 70 years too late: Judge clears 14-year old boy executed for killing two white girls in 1944
Published: 18:47 GMT, 17 December 2014 | Updated: 14:04 GMT, 18 December 2014
231
View comments
If he had lived, George Stinney Jr would be 84 today. Perhaps, enjoying the golden years of his life with a wife, children and grandchildren.
Instead, the black boy was just 14 and under 100 pounds when he was propped up on an electric chair with a phone book and executed for a pair of murders he probably didn't commit in 1944.
On Wednesday, seventy years too late, a South Carolina judge threw out Stinney's conviction on the basis that he had been wronged by the justice system, which pushed to arrest, convict and execute him in just a three-month period.
The ruling gave relief to Stinney's brother, sisters and civil rights activists who have been fighting to get his case reviewed for years.
+5
Stolen life: George Stinney Jr (pictured) became the youngest person executed in the 20th century when he was electrocuted in 1944 for the deaths of two girls in Acolu, South Carolina. A judge on Wednesday overturned the ruling on the basis that Stinney's civil rights had been violated by the justice system
+5
Admission: Stinney confessed to killing 11-year-old Betty June Binnicker (pictured) and 7-year-old Mary Emma Thames, after the 14-year-old was separated from his parents and interrogated by police. Judge Carmen Mullins says it's likely the confession was coerced
Stinney was living with his family in the segregated mill town of Acolu, South Carolina when he was arrested in connection to the murders of two white girls, 11-year-old Betty June Binnicker and 7-year-old Mary Emma Thames.
The girls disappeared on March 23, 1944 when they went for a bike ride together in search of wildflowers.
The girls' bodies were found the next morning in a shallow ditch behind a church, butchered to death with a railroad spike, their skulls crushed in.
Stinney was arrested after witnesses said they saw him picking flowers with the girls.
He admitted to the crime after being separated from his parents and interrogated by police.
After that, the justice system moved at lightening speed as he was tried in just one day and found guilty by an all-male, all-white jury who deliberated for less than 10 minutes.
Stinney was denied appeal and just three months after the girls' bodies were found, he became the youngest person in the twentieth century to be executed.
The 95-pound teen was so small he had to be propped up on a phone book on the electric chair, and one of the electrodes was too big for his leg.
South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Carmen Mullins reviewed his case this year, and issued her ruling to overturn it on Wednesday.
Mullins says she did judge the case based on the facts, since too many documents were lost, but on how the justice system treated the young boy.
She says she had to overturn the ruling because Stinney was not properly defended by his attorney, the confession was likely coerced and there was a lack of witnesses or physical evidence.
'From time to time we are called to look back to examine our still-recent history and correct injustice where possible,' Mullins wrote. 'I can think of no greater injustice than a violation of one's constitutional rights, which has been proven to me in this case by a preponderance of the evidence standard.'
+5
+5
Family grief: Some of Stinney's surviving family members were in the court room when the judgement was announced on Wednesday. On the left, Stinney's sisters Amie Ruffner (left) and Katherine Stinney-Robinson (right) in court last January
Mullins also pointed out the fact that the court never tried to get the case moved to another location, where the jury would not have had an emotional connection to the two girls who died.
Finally, Mullins said that executing the boy for the crime, even though he was the minimum age for criminal responsibility in the state, constituted cruel and unusual punishment.
Read more: Youngest person executed in 20th century exonerated
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
- George Stinney Jr was found guilty in 1944 of killing two white girls, 7-year-old Mary Emma Thames and 11-year-old Betty June Binnicker
- On Wednesday, a circuit court judge in South Carolina, overturned the ruling on the basis that the 14-year-old did not receive a fair trial
- Stinney was arrested, convicted and put to death in just three months
Published: 18:47 GMT, 17 December 2014 | Updated: 14:04 GMT, 18 December 2014
231
View comments
If he had lived, George Stinney Jr would be 84 today. Perhaps, enjoying the golden years of his life with a wife, children and grandchildren.
Instead, the black boy was just 14 and under 100 pounds when he was propped up on an electric chair with a phone book and executed for a pair of murders he probably didn't commit in 1944.
On Wednesday, seventy years too late, a South Carolina judge threw out Stinney's conviction on the basis that he had been wronged by the justice system, which pushed to arrest, convict and execute him in just a three-month period.
The ruling gave relief to Stinney's brother, sisters and civil rights activists who have been fighting to get his case reviewed for years.
+5
Stolen life: George Stinney Jr (pictured) became the youngest person executed in the 20th century when he was electrocuted in 1944 for the deaths of two girls in Acolu, South Carolina. A judge on Wednesday overturned the ruling on the basis that Stinney's civil rights had been violated by the justice system
+5
Admission: Stinney confessed to killing 11-year-old Betty June Binnicker (pictured) and 7-year-old Mary Emma Thames, after the 14-year-old was separated from his parents and interrogated by police. Judge Carmen Mullins says it's likely the confession was coerced
Stinney was living with his family in the segregated mill town of Acolu, South Carolina when he was arrested in connection to the murders of two white girls, 11-year-old Betty June Binnicker and 7-year-old Mary Emma Thames.
The girls disappeared on March 23, 1944 when they went for a bike ride together in search of wildflowers.
The girls' bodies were found the next morning in a shallow ditch behind a church, butchered to death with a railroad spike, their skulls crushed in.
Stinney was arrested after witnesses said they saw him picking flowers with the girls.
He admitted to the crime after being separated from his parents and interrogated by police.
After that, the justice system moved at lightening speed as he was tried in just one day and found guilty by an all-male, all-white jury who deliberated for less than 10 minutes.
Stinney was denied appeal and just three months after the girls' bodies were found, he became the youngest person in the twentieth century to be executed.
The 95-pound teen was so small he had to be propped up on a phone book on the electric chair, and one of the electrodes was too big for his leg.
South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Carmen Mullins reviewed his case this year, and issued her ruling to overturn it on Wednesday.
Mullins says she did judge the case based on the facts, since too many documents were lost, but on how the justice system treated the young boy.
She says she had to overturn the ruling because Stinney was not properly defended by his attorney, the confession was likely coerced and there was a lack of witnesses or physical evidence.
'From time to time we are called to look back to examine our still-recent history and correct injustice where possible,' Mullins wrote. 'I can think of no greater injustice than a violation of one's constitutional rights, which has been proven to me in this case by a preponderance of the evidence standard.'
+5
+5
Family grief: Some of Stinney's surviving family members were in the court room when the judgement was announced on Wednesday. On the left, Stinney's sisters Amie Ruffner (left) and Katherine Stinney-Robinson (right) in court last January
Mullins also pointed out the fact that the court never tried to get the case moved to another location, where the jury would not have had an emotional connection to the two girls who died.
Finally, Mullins said that executing the boy for the crime, even though he was the minimum age for criminal responsibility in the state, constituted cruel and unusual punishment.
Read more: Youngest person executed in 20th century exonerated
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Bavaria
JF-Expert Member
- Jun 14, 2011
- 53,092
- 53,496
George Stinney Jr: Black 14-year-old boy exonerated 70 years after he was executed
George Stinney Jr’s conviction was overturned because he was not given a fair trial
89
George Stinney Jr, a black teenager executed in 1944 for the murder of two white girls, has been exonerated for not having received a fair trial. Reuters
George Stinney Jr became the youngest person to be executed in the US in the 20th century when he was sent to the electric chair in 1944, but more than 70 years after his death his conviction has been overturned.
Circuit Judge Carmen Mullen said the speed with which the state meted out justice against the boy was shocking and extremely unfair, and that his case was one of "great injustice" in her ruling exonerating Stinney Jr.
The 14-year-old black boy was sentenced to death for the murder of two white girls in a segregated mill town in South Carolina, in a trial that lasted less than three hours and reportedly bore no evidence and barely any witness testimonies.
Aime Ruffner receives support from family and friends after testifying at the hearing to reopen the case for her brother
He was kept from his parents and any legal counsel when he was interrogated by authorities, and his supporters claim that the small, frail boy was so scared that he would have said whatever he thought would make the police happy, despite there having been no physical evidence linking him to the death of the girls.
Stinney Jr and his sister Amie Ruffner were the last people to see the two girls, aged 7 and 11, alive when they were out in a field near the town of Alcolu. Stinney Jr’s father had been part of the search team that found the girls’ bodies hours later in a ditch, badly beaten with crushing blows to their skulls.
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Defense witness Katherine Stinney-Robinson leaves the stand after her testimony in the case for her brother in January
His case has long been spoken of as an example of how a black person could be railroaded by a justice system during the era of Jim Crow segregation laws where the investigators, prosecutors and juries where all white.
The boy’s family have insisted that he was innocent, and in January they asked a local judge to order a re-trial and clear Stinney Jr’s name, claiming there was new evidence about the crime.
This time Stinney Jr’s case was given a two day hearing in which experts questioned his confession and the autopsy findings, while the judge heard accounts from the boy’s surviving brothers and sisters, and someone who had been involved in the search. Most of the evidence from the original trial was gone and almost all the witnesses were dead.
He was 14 when he was executed. More than 70 years later, this boy has been exonerated
George Stinney Jr’s conviction was overturned because he was not given a fair trial
- Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith
- Thursday 18 December 2014
- 50 comments
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George Stinney Jr, a black teenager executed in 1944 for the murder of two white girls, has been exonerated for not having received a fair trial. Reuters
George Stinney Jr became the youngest person to be executed in the US in the 20th century when he was sent to the electric chair in 1944, but more than 70 years after his death his conviction has been overturned.
Circuit Judge Carmen Mullen said the speed with which the state meted out justice against the boy was shocking and extremely unfair, and that his case was one of "great injustice" in her ruling exonerating Stinney Jr.
The 14-year-old black boy was sentenced to death for the murder of two white girls in a segregated mill town in South Carolina, in a trial that lasted less than three hours and reportedly bore no evidence and barely any witness testimonies.
Aime Ruffner receives support from family and friends after testifying at the hearing to reopen the case for her brother
He was kept from his parents and any legal counsel when he was interrogated by authorities, and his supporters claim that the small, frail boy was so scared that he would have said whatever he thought would make the police happy, despite there having been no physical evidence linking him to the death of the girls.
Stinney Jr and his sister Amie Ruffner were the last people to see the two girls, aged 7 and 11, alive when they were out in a field near the town of Alcolu. Stinney Jr’s father had been part of the search team that found the girls’ bodies hours later in a ditch, badly beaten with crushing blows to their skulls.
Read more
- George Stinney Jr story and his family's battle for justice
- It is wrong to think capital punishment is more 'humane' since 1944
- Miscarriages of justice in US death penalty cases are still common
Defense witness Katherine Stinney-Robinson leaves the stand after her testimony in the case for her brother in January
His case has long been spoken of as an example of how a black person could be railroaded by a justice system during the era of Jim Crow segregation laws where the investigators, prosecutors and juries where all white.
The boy’s family have insisted that he was innocent, and in January they asked a local judge to order a re-trial and clear Stinney Jr’s name, claiming there was new evidence about the crime.
This time Stinney Jr’s case was given a two day hearing in which experts questioned his confession and the autopsy findings, while the judge heard accounts from the boy’s surviving brothers and sisters, and someone who had been involved in the search. Most of the evidence from the original trial was gone and almost all the witnesses were dead.
He was 14 when he was executed. More than 70 years later, this boy has been exonerated
