On March 22, 1944, two white girls disappeared while bicycle riding looking for flowers. The bodies of 11-year-old Betty Binnicker and 7-year-old Mary Thames were found in a ditch the next day. They had been brutally beaten by a blunt object. 14-year-old George Stinney, Jr. had spoken to the girls as they rode by his house and was arrested for the crime. The police insisted that he confessed to the crime and an autopsy determined that Betty may have been raped. Stinney confessed to the rape and murders. Alcolu, South Carolina was a typical southern town. The railroad track separated the black and white sections of the segregated town. The girls were found on the black side of town. The trial was a farce. Stinney had not been provided with a lawyer during his questioning. His parents did not get to see him until after the trial. He was alone for 81 days. The trial occurred on April 24. It had an all-white jury and an all-white audience, with more whites outside demanding “justice”. Stinney’s court appointed lawyer was a white man running for public office. He did not cross examine any witness, called no witnesses, and provided virtually no defense. Three cops testified to the confession, but there was no written document. The trial lasted only 2 ½ hours and the jury took less than 10 minutes to reach the verdict. Stinney was convicted of murder and rape and sentenced to the electric chair. There was no appeal. He was visited in prison by his parents only one time. Despite numerous appeals, the Governor of S.C. refused to commute the sentence. On June 16, 1944, George Stinney was put in the electric chair with a Bible used as a booster seat since he was so small. He died crying.
Stinney was the youngest person executed in the U.S. in the 20th Century. The trial was forgotten until a local historian living in Alcolu began investigating it. George Fierson’s research showed evidence of a terrible miscarriage of justice. Others took up the call for a new investigation. In 2014, a judge vacated the decision citing lack of due process, poor representation, and the lack of a written confession. The judge did admit that Stinney was probably guilty, but that did not excuse the unfair trial. Further investigations have uncovered an alternate suspect. A white teenager from a leading family could have done it and his family made sure the finger pointed elsewhere. Since there was little blood on the bodies, this tended to show that they had been moved, which Stinney would not have been able to do. The white boy had a truck that could have done it.
Personally, I feel George Stinney was probably guilty, but he absolutely did not get a fair trial and never should have been sentenced to death. Even relatives of the dead girls found the sentence to be too harsh.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Stinney
https://eji.org/news/george-stinney-exonerated/
https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2014/mar/22/george-stinney-execution-verdict-innocent
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