Judge throws out teen’s murder conviction 70 years after his execution - The Washington Post
▻http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/12/17/judge-throws-out-teens-murder-conviction-70-years-after-his-execution/?tid=sm_fb
When George Stinney Jr. was executed for the killings of two white girls in 1944, he was so small that the straps of South Carolina’s electric chair didn’t fit him properly, and he had to sit on a book for his electrocution.
Stinney was just 14 years old at the time and became the youngest person put to death in the United States in the 20th century. But Wednesday, 70 years after the fact, Circuit Judge Carmen Mullen tossed out his conviction, which was reached after a trial that didn’t even last a full day and was never appealed. As the Associated Press noted, it took Mullen “nearly four times as long to issue her ruling as it took in 1944 to go from arrest to execution.”
“I can think of no greater injustice,” Mullen wrote in her 29-page order, the AP reported.
Judge Overturns A 14-Year-Old’s Murder Conviction – 70 Years Too Late - LiberalAmerica.org
▻http://www.liberalamerica.org/2014/12/17/judge-overturns-a-14-year-olds-murder-conviction-70-years-too-late
In today’s announcement, Judge Carmen Mullins ruled that there was lack of evidence in the trial, and that Stinney wasn’t provided adequate representation in the courtroom, either.
“Given the particularized circumstances of Stinney’s case, I find by a preponderance of the evidence standard, that a violation of the Defendant’s procedural due process rights tainted his prosecution.”
The murder victims were reportedly last seen speaking to Stinney and his sister, and were later found dead from blunt head wounds. After the boy was arrested by local police on that “last seen with” basis alone, Stinney’s father was fired from his job at the local lumber mill, and his family was forced to flee the town due to threats.
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SC Teen George Stinney Jr. Exonerated 70 Years After Execution - The Root
▻http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/12/s_c_teen_george_stinney_jr_exonerated_70_years_after_execution.html
It’s been 70 years since George Stinney Jr., a 14-year-old South Carolina boy, faced the electric chair for the 1944 murders of two young white girls in Alcolu, but his name has finally been cleared after a circuit court judge tossed his murder conviction, NBC News reports.
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Black 14-year-old exonerated 70 years after South Carolina put him to death | US news | theguardian.com
▻http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/17/black-14-year-old-exonerated-70-years-after-south-carolina-put-him-to-d
More than seven decades after South Carolina executed 14-year-old George Stinney, a judge has thrown out his conviction and cleared his name.
Stinney was accused of killing two white girls, Betty June Binnicker, 11, and Mary Emma Thames, seven, who were found dead in a ditch on the black side of the racially segregated town of Alcolu, South Carolina, in March 1944. In the Jim Crow era of the South, Stinney was tried, convicted and executed within 83 days in the small mill town.