South Carolina Justice: The George Stinney Saga

[Sanji Himura]

Considered today as one of the worst examples of executions in the American legal system, George Stinney Jr. was a 14 year old boy convicted of the murder of two white girls in 1944. Despite the fact that the boy only weighed 95 pounds, a jury of all white men took all of ten minutes to convict him after a three hour trial. When he was executed three months later, his small stature wouldn't fit in the chair properly, so they used a phone book so they could execute him.

70 years after his execution, a South Carolina judge threw out his conviction Wednesday.

Civil rights activists have been spending years trying to reopen the case, saying that Stinney's confession was coerced, but South Carolina officials maintain that he beat his two victims, ages 11 and 8, with a railroad spike.

Source: NBC News

 

[DK]

You'd have to wonder how many other cases there are that are like Stinney's.

Considered today as one of the worst examples of executions in the American legal system, George Stinney Jr. was a 14 year old boy convicted of the murder of two white girls in 1944. Despite the fact that the boy only weighed 95 pounds, a jury of all white men took all of ten minutes to convict him after a three hour trial.

[...]

South Carolina officials maintain that he beat his two victims, ages 11 and 8, with a railroad spike.

You'd also have to wonder if the officials cited knew anything about the circumstances of the case.

 

[Pupik]

It's not as if my dear old Alabama was any less to blame for that kind of crap. You know, 24 years too late.

It's amazing that most of The South has only truly had "justice for all" in the past 40-50 years.