"BECAUSE HE IS BLACK" What happens to the minority when justice is neglected and prejudice prevails? GEORGE JUNIUS STINNEY Jr. He was only 14 years old yet, died the death of a 40 years. What really happened to him, why was he executed? #

  WE ALL SHOULD AGREE WITH ME THAT PREJUDICE IS ALSO A CRIME

       George Junius Stinney Jr. (October 21, 1929 – June 16, 1944), was a 14 year old African-American convicted of murder as a result of a racially-biased and discriminatory trial in 1944 in his home town of Alcolu, South Carolina. He is the youngest person in the United States in the 20th-century to be sentenced to death and to be executed.

George Stinney

Stinney's mug shot

BornGeorge Junius Stinney, Jr.
October 21, 1929
Pinewood, South Carolina, United StatesDiedJune 16, 1944 (aged 14)
Columbia, South Carolina, United StatesCriminal penaltyDeath by electric chairCriminal status

Executed (1944)Conviction vacated (2014)

Conviction(s)First-degree murder (vacated)

Stinney was convicted in less than 10 minutes, during a one-day trial, by an all-white jury[2] of the first-degree murder of two whitegirls: 11-year-old Betty June Binnicker and 8-year-old Mary Emma Thames. After being arrested, Stinney was said to have confessed to the crime.[3][4] There was no written record of his confession apart from notes provided by an investigating deputy,[5] and no transcript was recorded of the brief trial. He was denied appeal and executed by electric chair.

Since Stinney's conviction and execution the question of his guilt, the validity of his reported confession, and the judicial process leading to his execution have been extensively criticized.

     A group of lawyers and activists investigated the Stinney case on behalf of his family. In 2013 the family petitioned for a new trial. On December 17, 2014, his conviction was posthumously vacated 70 years after his execution, because the circuit court judge ruled that he had not been given a fair trial; he had no effective defense and his Sixth Amendment rights had been violated.[7][8] The judgment noted that while Stinney may in fact have committed the crime, the prosecution and trial were fundamentally flawed.[5] Judge Mullen ruled that his confession was likely coerced and thus inadmissible. She also found that the execution of a 14-year-old constituted "cruel and unusual punishment.

    In 1944 George Junius Stinney, Jr. lived in Alcolu, Clarendon County, South Carolina. The 14-year-old African-American boy lived with his father, George Stinney, Sr., mother Aime, brothers Charles, age 12, and John, age 17, and sisters Katherine, age 10, and Aime, age 7. George Sr. worked at the town's sawmill, and the family lived in housing provided by George Sr.'s employer. Alcolu was a small, working-class mill town, where white and black neighborhoods were separated by railroad tracks. The town was typical of small Southern towns of the time, with separate schools and churches for white and black residents, who rarely interacted.

The bodies of Betty June Binnicker, age 11, and Mary Emma Thames, age 8, were found in a ditch on the black side of Alcolu on March 23, 1944. They had been beaten with an improvised weapon variously reported as a piece of blunt metal or a railroad spike.[2] The girls were last seen riding their bicycles looking for flowers. As they passed the Stinney property, they asked young George Stinney and his sister, Aime,[5] if they knew where to find "maypops", a local name for passionflowers.[4] According to Aime, she was with George at the time of the murder.

When the girls did not return home, search parties were organized. George's father was among the searchers.[6] The bodies of the girls were found the next morning, on the black side of town, in a ditch filled with muddy water. According to an article reported by the wire services on March 24, 1944, and published widely, with the mistake of the boy's name preserved, the sheriff announced the arrest and said that "George Junius" had confessed and led officers to "a hidden piece of iron."[3][4] Both girls had suffered blunt force trauma to the face and head.[10] Reports differed as to what kind of weapon had been used.[11] According to a report by the medical examiner, these wounds had been "inflicted by a blunt instrument with a round head, about the size of a hammer." Both girls' skulls were punctured. The girls had not been sexually assaulted and their hymens were intact. The medical examiner reported the genitalia of the older girl were slightly bruised.

   George Stinney was arrested on suspicion of murdering the girls along with his older brother Johnny. Johnny was released, George was held and not allowed to see his parents until after his trial and conviction.[5] According to a handwritten statement, the arresting officer was H.S. Newman, a Clarendon County deputy, who stated "I arrested a boy by the name of George Stinney. He then made a confession and told me where to find a piece of iron about 15 inches were [sic] he said he put it in a ditch about six feet from the bicycle." No confession statement signed by Stinney is known to exist.

George was reported to have gotten into fights at school, including a fight where he scratched a girl with a knife. This assertion by Stinney's seventh-grade teacher, who was black, was disputed by Aime Stinney Ruffner when it was reported in 1995. A local white woman who remembered Stinney from childhood said Stinney had threatened to kill her and her friend the day before the murder, and that he was known as a bully.

Following George's arrest, his father was fired from his job at the local sawmill, and the Stinney family had to immediately vacate the housing provided by Stinney Sr's employer. The family feared for their safety. His parents did not see George again before the trial. He had no support during his 81-day confinement and trial; he was kept at a jail in Columbia 50 miles from town because of the risk of lynching.[6] Stinney was questioned alone, without his parents or an attorney.[2] Although the Sixth Amendment guarantees legal counsel, it was not until 1966 that Miranda v. Arizona explicitly required representation through the course of criminal proceedings.

The entire proceeding against Stinney, including jury selection, took one day. Stinney's court-appointed defense counsel was Charles Plowden, a tax commissioner campaigning for election to local political office. Plowden did not challenge the three police officers who testified that Stinney confessed to the two murders, despite this being the only evidence against him, and despite the prosecution's presentation of two different versions of Stinney's verbal confession. In one version Stinney was attacked by the girls after he tried to help one girl who had fallen in the ditch and he killed them in self defense. In the other version he had followed the girls, first attacking Mary Emma and then Betty June. There was no physical evidence linking him to the murders.[5] There is no written record of Stinney's confession apart from Deputy Newman's statement.

Stinney's trial had an all-white jury. More than 1,000 people crowded the courtroom but no blacks were allowed.[6] Other than the testimony of the three police officers, at trial prosecutors called three witnesses: Reverend Francis Batson, who discovered the bodies of the two girls, and the two doctors who performed the post-mortem examination. Conflicting confessions were reported to have been offered by the prosecution. The court allowed discussion of the "possibility" of rape despite an absence of evidence in the medical examiner's report. Stinney's counsel did not call any witnesses, did not cross-examine witnesses and offered little or no defense. Trial presentation lasted two and a half hours.[5] The jury took ten minutes to deliberate, after which they returned with a guilty verdict. The judge sentenced Stinney to death by the electric chair. There is no transcript of the trial. No appeal was filed.

Stinney's family, churches and the NAACPappealed to Governor Olin D. Johnston for clemency, given the age of the boy. Others urged the governor to let the execution proceed, which he did.[10] Johnston stated in a response to one appeal for clemency that "It may be interesting for you to know that Stinney killed the smaller girl to rape the larger one. Then he killed the larger girl and raped her dead body. Twenty minutes later he returned and attempted to rape her again, but her body was too cold. All of this he admitted himself." These assertions were not supported by the medical examiner's report.

Between the time of Stinney's arrest and his execution, Stinney's parents were allowed to see him once, after the trial in the Columbia penitentiary.

The execution of George Stinney was carried out at the Central Correctional Institution in Columbia on June 16, 1944, at 7:30 p.m.[10]Standing 5 feet 1 inch (155 cm) tall and weighing just over 90 pounds (40 kg),[15]Stinney was so small compared to the usual adult prisoners that law officers had difficulty securing him to the frame holding the electrodes. The state's adult-sized face-mask did not fit him; as he was hit with the first 2,400 V surge of electricity, the mask covering his face slipped off.[16] Stinney was declared dead within four minutes of the initial electrocution. From the time of the murders until Stinney's execution, 83 days had passed.[10] Such efficiency was not unusual at that time period. Giuseppe Zangara, a white man who murdered Anton Cermak in 1933, was electrocuted only 34 days after he committed the crime.

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