A14-year-old executed in 1944 could get new trial

Catitude · ‎01-09-2014

A 14-year-old executed in 1944 could get new trial

Seventy years after South Carolina executed a 14-year-old boy so small he sat on a phone book in the electric chair, a circuit court judge threw out his murder conviction. On Wednesday morning, Judge Carmen Mullins vacated the decision against George Stinney Jr., a black teen who was convicted of beating two young white girls to death in the small town of Alcolu in 1944. Civil rights advocates have spent years trying to get the case reopened, arguing that Stinney's confession was coerced. At the time of his arrest, Stinney weighed just 95 pounds. Officials said Stinney had admitted beating the girls, 11 and 8 years old, with a railroad spike. In a 2009 affidavit, Stinney's sister said she had been with him on the day of the murders and he could not have committed them. Stinney was put on trial and then executed within three months of the killings. His trial lasted three hours, and a jury of 12 white men took 10 minutes to find him guilty. He is often cited as the youngest person executed in the U.S. in the 20th century. At the time of the crime, 14 was the legal age of criminal responsibility in the state.

Cakers1 · ‎03-09-2010

They gave him ice cream to get him to confess. This child was innocent. ${#emotions_dlg.crying}$ Not only did they need the phone book, but Stinny was so slender at 90 lbs that the hood actually flew off at the first jolt. Horrific.

The Emmitt Till case, also a 14 year old black child, is considered the turning point for the start of the civil rights movement. Although the two white men were acquitted in that case, they were interviewed later and admitted to the killing. Double jeopardy. ${#emotions_dlg.angry}$

Catitude · ‎01-09-2014

So sad.

colliegirls · ‎05-13-2012

Nothing can fix this. So tragic.

Lynneuk · ‎03-10-2010

This is why I can never support the death penalty. Too many innocent people are convicted and later found to be innocent.

Cakers1 · ‎03-09-2010

It's troubling because it was all based on Stinny saying he did see the girls that day.

That was it - that was all the prosecutor had - that and a twisted confession Spinny gave after being given ice cream.

In the meantime, the person who killed those girls lived free for who knows how long.

MrsSweetieBear · ‎03-10-2010

I'm surprised he was arrested, tried and executed legally by the state at all. Mob lynching, which was not illegal although not actually carried out by the law, was much more common. Thousands were tortured, lynched and/or burned from the 1870s to the 1960s under Jim Crow. Most were guilty of absolutely nothing. Southern whites just made up accusations so they could carry out the injustice and continue their reign of terror and supremacy. Very ugly history.

~Dogs are my favorite people and my favorite people are dogs.~

151949 · ‎03-09-2010

This is a huge waste of resources that are already way too thin.

Dell1 · ‎03-09-2010

On 12/18/2014 happy housewife said:
This is a huge waste of resources that are already way too thin.

What is the huge waste of resources? Getting the new trial?

Marienkaefer2 · ‎03-09-2010

There are many things that are a waste of resources. This type of thing is not one of them, imo. I'm sure the extended family of the boy, if any exist, do not think it a waste of resources.

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.--Marcus Tullius Cicero