He was 14 yrs. 6mos. and 5 days old --- and the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th Century

[ThatOtherFan]

I saw someone post this on facebook and it just broke my heart....and it obviously made me think of recent events that I don't have to name

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He was 14 yrs. 6mos. and 5 days old --- and the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th Century

George Junius Stinney, Jr.,

[b. 1929 - d. 1944]

In a South Carolina prison sixty-six years ago, guards walked a 14-year-old boy, bible tucked under his arm, to the electric chair. At 5' 1" and 95 pounds, the straps didn’t fit, and an electrode was too big for his leg.

The switch was pulled and the adult sized death mask fell from George Stinney’s face. Tears streamed from his eyes. Witnesses recoiled in horror as they watched the youngest person executed in the United States in the past century die.

Now, a community activist is fighting to clear Stinney’s name, saying the young boy couldn’t have killed two girls. George Frierson, a school board member and textile inspector, believes Stinney’s confession was coerced, and that his execution was just another injustice blacks suffered in Southern courtrooms in the first half of the 1900s.

In a couple of cases like Stinney’s, petitions are being made before parole boards and courts are being asked to overturn decisions made when society’s thumb was weighing the scales of justice against blacks. These requests are buoyed for the first time in generations by money, college degrees and sometimes clout.

“I hope we see more cases like this because it help brings a sense of closure. It’s symbolic,” said Howard University law professor Frank Wu. “It’s not just important for the individuals and their families. It’s important for the entire community. Not just for African Americans, but for whites and for our democracy as a whole. What these cases show is that it is possible to achieve justice.”

Some have already achieved justice. Earlier this year, syndicated radio host Tom Joyner successfully won a posthumous pardon for two great uncles who were executed in South Carolina.

A few years ago Lena Baker, a black Georgia maid sent to the electric chair for killing a white man, received a pardon after her family pointed out she likely killed the man because he was holding her against her will.

In the Stinney case, supporters want the state to admit that officials executed the wrong person in June 1944.

Stinney was accused of killing two white girls, 11 year old Betty June Binnicker and 8 year old

Mary Emma Thames, by beating them with a railroad spike then dragging their bodies to a ditch near Acolu, about five miles from Manning in central South Carolina. The girls were found a day after they disappeared following a massive manhunt. Stinney was arrested a few hours later, white men in suits taking him away. Because of the risk of a lynching, Stinney was kept at a jail 50 miles away in Columbia.

Stinney’s father, who had helped look for the girls, was fired immediately and ordered to leave his home and the sawmill where he worked. His family was told to leave town prior to the trial to avoid further retribution. An atmosphere of lynch mob hysteria hung over the courthouse. Without family visits, the 14 year old had to endure the trial and death alone.

Frierson hasn’t been able to get the case out of his head since, carrying around a thick binder of old newspaper stories and documents, including an account from an execution witness.

The sheriff at the time said Stinney admitted to the killings, but there is only his word — no written record of the confession has been found. A lawyer helping Frierson with the case figures threats of mob violence and not being able to see his parents rattled the seventh- grader.

Attorney Steve McKenzie said he has even heard one account that says detectives offered the boy ice cream once they were done.

“You’ve got to know he was going to say whatever they wanted him to say,” McKenzie said.

The court appointed Stinney an attorney — a tax commissioner preparing for a Statehouse run. In all, the trial — from jury selection to a sentence of death — lasted one day. Records indicate 1,000 people crammed the courthouse. Blacks weren’t allowed inside.

The defense called no witnesses and never filed an appeal. No one challenged the sheriff’s recollection of the confession.

“As an attorney, it just kind of haunted me, just the way the judicial system worked to this boy’s disadvantage or disfavor. It did not protect him,” said McKenzie, who is preparing court papers to ask a judge to reopen the case.

Stinney’s official court record contains less than two dozen pages, several of them arrest warrants. There is no transcript of the trial.

The lack of records, while not unusual, makes it harder for people trying to get these old convictions overturned, Wu said.

But these old cases also can have a common thread.

“Some of these cases are so egregious, so extreme that when you look at it, the prosecution really has no case either,” Wu said. “It’s apparent from what you can see that someone was railroaded.”

And sometimes, police under pressure by frightened citizens jumped to conclusions rather than conducting a thorough investigation, Wu said.

Bluffton Today - 'Crusaders look to right Jim Crow justice wrongs' by Jeffrey Collins

Photo: South Carolina Department of Archives and History

[Reyna ♔]

:tear: That poor child. How America was so cruel back then, and still show many traces of it now :cry:

[Rock & Roll Hall of Game]

sad

[ThatOtherFan]

:tear: That poor child. How America was so cruel back then, and still show many traces of it now :cry:

It's been on my mind non-stop since I first read it. I keep seeing him sitting in that electric chair scared to death (literally and figuratively)...and it just breaks my heart. There are no words...and the sad thing is he's one of hundreds of similar stories that we don't know anything about.

Also this song keeps going through my head

[Reyna ♔]

It's been on my mind non-stop since I first read it. I keep seeing him sitting in that electric chair scared to death (literally and figuratively)...and it just breaks my heart. There are no words...and the sad thing is he's one of hundreds of similar stories that we don't know anything about.

Also this song keeps going through my head

It's horrifying to hear. Goodness knows the pain he went through leading up to it, and also how his family felt during and after. It really gets you thinking and humbles you all at the same time. Someone so young, wrongfully accused of something so horrible. My mind actually shot back to Emmett Till when I read the story. Another one that broke my heart.

[ThatOtherFan]

It's horrifying to hear. Goodness knows the pain he went through leading up to it, and also how his family felt during and after. It really gets you thinking and humbles you all at the same time. Someone so young, wrongfully accused of something so horrible. My mind actually shot back to Emmett Till when I read the story. Another one that broke my heart.

Yes, Emmett Till as well. So many deeply troubling stories from that time period...what really angers me is that the people involved in these disgusting acts lived LONG lives and many with no regret for their actions. I can't wrap my mind around it....

[*~WhitePicketDreams~*]

SMH.....

[Reyna ♔]

Yes, the Emmett Till as well. So many deeply troubling stories from that time period...what really angers me that the people involved in these disgusting acts lived LONG lives and many with no regret for their actions. I can't wrap my mind around it....

Exactly. That's the horrible truth of it all. It really makes you question justice and Karma and all things associated. Do they even exist in a natural world if these things are allowed to happen without consequence? You want to say yes and to have patience...but your gut tells you something else.

[ThatOtherFan]

Exactly. That's the horrible truth of it all. It really makes you question justice and Karma and all things associated. Do they even exist in a natural world if these things are allowed to happen without consequence? You want to say yes and to have patience...but your gut tells you something else.

Exactly, it definitely makes me question all of it. Reading about awful events like these just tells me it doesn't exist. It's just sad...and I still can't stop thinking about it.

[Reyna ♔]

Exactly, it definitely makes me question all of it. Reading about awful events like these just tells me it doesn't exist. It's just sad...and I still can't stop thinking about it.

Every story like this that we hear brings us back to the harsh realities of the world. It's good that these things pierce our hearts, because hopefully that way they can instill in us the will and determination to not see them happen again. Forgive, learn and never forget.

[ThatOtherFan]

Every story like this that we hear brings us back to the harsh realities of the world. It's good that these things pierce our hearts, because hopefully that way they can instill in us the will and determination to not see them happen again. Forgive, learn and never forget.

You're right. I'm having trouble with the forgiveness aspect of it though. If I were around during that time I would more than likely have been killed (brutally). It just hurts to even think about it all...

[Reyna ♔]

You're right. I'm having trouble with the forgiveness aspect of it though. If I were around during that time I would more than likely have been killed (brutally). It just hurts to even think about it all...

Forgiveness is always the hardest. But it is the bigger key. Many can testify to the same. Be it by race, sexuality, even aiding someone different from you. But also remember, never forgetting, doesn't mean staying there. You look back only to learn and to grow.

[henrietta.]

Sadness.

I saw that Lena Baker movie a few months ago.

[ThatOtherFan]

Forgiveness is always the hardest. But it is the bigger key. Many can testify to the same. Be it by race, sexuality, even aiding someone different from you. But also remember, never forgetting, doesn't mean staying there. You look back only to learn and to grow.

I suppose...maybe I'm just not "good enough" to forgive. The anger and pain of it all is just too deep, even though I haven't experienced even a tenth of what many endured.

Sadness.

I saw that Lena Baker movie a few months ago.

I wanted to watch this too, I keep forgetting to check it out. I read up on the actual story though.

[RedSimba]

Breaks my heart

[Bailey]

that's just outrageous but the US justice system is broken like so much else

[henrietta.]

I wanted to watch this too, I keep forgetting to check it out. I read up on the actual story though.

Tichina Arnold did a great job in it. The whole thing was clear racism.

[Miaboo]

So tragic. Makes me

[lexus97]

all i had to see was south carolina.

[King Baby]

I need to see that movie.

If I were to play devil's advocate, and he did kill those two little heffers, what would you say of his punishment?