HIS is the disturbing story of an innocent African American child who was killed in the electric chair after being convicted of murder in just 10 minutes by an all-white jury....CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
George Stinney Jr, who was 14 when he died in 1944, is the youngest person executed in the US during the 20th century.
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George’s conviction was overturned 70 years later in 2014Credit: State of South Carolina. More than 70 years later, in December 2014, George’s murder conviction was overturned by a South Carolina judge.
He was accused of the gruesome double murder of two white girls in the small town of Alcolu, South Carolina in March, 1944.
The bodies of Betty June Binnicker, aged 11, and Mary Emma Thames, eight, were found with their skulls fractured on the “black side” of the deeply divided community.
They had been bludgeoned to death with a railroad spike. Police arrested little George after it emerged that he had seen the pair the previous day.
A 1991 TV movie dramatises the execution of 14-year-old George Stinney Jr in 1944Credit: Carolina Skeletons. The young boy was convicted by an all-white jury of the double murder of two white girlsCredit: Carolina Skeletons
He was taken from his home by cops who then claimed he confessed to the double murder despite no written confession ever being produced.
There was also no physical evidence linking him to the crime. His parents were never allowed to visit him following his arrest, his sister has claimed.
The infamous three-hour trial still hangs over South Carolina as one of the most horrifying miscarriages of justice ever carried out in the state.
George was sentenced to death by a jury of 12 white men who returned a guilty verdict after only 10 minutes of deliberation.
Just two months later, the 14-year-old child was led crying and shaking into the execution chamber. While cops say George confessed to the crime, there was no documented evidence to back up any of their claimsCredit: Carolina Skeletons
Local newspaper reports say the guards had trouble strapping the small child, measuring 5ft 1in in height and weighing just 95lb (6st 7 lbs), into the electric chair which had been built for adults.
Their solution was to make George sit on a thick telephone directory. Moments later the first surge of 2,400 volts were blasted into his little body before the adult death mask, too big for him, slipped from his face revealing tears streaming down from his eyes.
Following two more charges of electricity, the teenager was pronounced dead on June 16, 1944. In December 2014, George’s murder conviction was overturned by a South Carolina judge.
His parents were never allowed to talk to their son between his arrest and his executionCredit: Reuters. Judge Carmen Mullen revealed that the boy’s lawyer had called “few or no witnesses,” and failed to properly cross-examine his accusers.
His sister Amie Ruffner testified during the appeal process that her brother was at home on the day that two girls were killed and could not have possibly murdered them.
Amie said that that she watched her older brother being arrested by white policeman when she was just eight-years-old.
She says the next time she saw George was when she saw his “burned face” in an open casket at his funeral. Amie says her family were hounded out of Alcolu because of the case and she has never returned since.
She said: “In those days, when you are white you were right, when you were black you were wrong.” A 1991 TV movie titled Carolina Skeletons recreates the terrifying execution of the teenager.
The film was based on a book of the same by George’s nephew David Stout…CONTINUE READING>>
