George Stinney Jr’s conviction was overturned because he was not given a fair trial
George Stinney Jr became the youngest person to be e*xecuted in the US in the 20th century when he was sent to the e*lectric ch*air in 1944, but more than 70 years after his d*eath his c*onviction has been o*verturned.
C*ircuit Judge Carmen Mullen said the speed with which the state meted out justice a*gainst the boy was sh*ocking and e*xtremely unfair, and that his case was one of "great i*njustice" in her ruling e*xonerating Stinney Jr.
The 14-year-old black boy was s*entenced to d*eath for the m*urder of two white girls in a segregated mill town in South Carolina, in a t*rial 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 p*olice happy, despite there having been no physical evidence linking him to the d*eath 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’ b*odies hours later in a d*itch, b*adly b*eaten with c*rushi*ng b*low*s to their s*kulls.
Stinney Jr had been a*rrested and e*xecu*ted within the space of around three months. E*xecutio*ners noted that he was too small for the e*lectric ch*air when he d*ied; the s*traps did not fit him, an e*lectrode was too big for his leg, and the boy had to sit on a bible to fit properly in the chair.
Defense w*itness Katherine Stinney-Robinson leaves the stand after her t*estimony in the c*ase for her brother in January
His c*ase has long been spoken of as an example of how a black person could be r*ailroaded by a justice system during the era of Jim Crow segregation laws where the i*nvestigators, p*rosecutors and j*uries where all white.
The boy’s family have insisted that he was i*nnocent, and in January they asked a local j*udge to order a re-t*rial and clear Stinney Jr’s name, claiming there was new evidence about the c*rime.
This time Stinney Jr’s c*ase was given a two day hearing in which experts questioned his confession and the a*utopsy findings, while the j*udge heard accounts from the boy’s s*urviving brothers and sisters, and someone who had been involved in the search. Most of the evidence from the original t*rial was gone and almost all the w*itnesses were d*ead.
It took Mullen nearly four times as long to return her decision on Stinney Jr’s c*ase than it had originally taken to a*rrest and have him e*xecu*ted in 1944, and said in her ruling that she could “think of no greater injustice” than the boy’s c*ase.
Judge Mullen found that Stinney Jr’s confession was “highly likely” to have been coerced by authorities, while few or no witnesses were found to have testified in the t*rial.
The j*udge said she was overturning the boy’s conviction because the South Carolina c*ourt had failed to grant a fair t*rial in 1944.