Death Penalty News

George Junius Stinney Jr., 14, the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th Century. Family of George Junius Stinney Jr. still waiting to clear his name for the 1944 murders of Mary Thames and Betty Binnicker in South Carolina Stinney, who was black, was charged, tried, convicted and executed in 83 days. He was sentenced to die by an all-white, all-male jury. A forensic psychiatrist called Stinney's statement 'a coerced, compliant, false confession.' George Junius Stinney Jr. was charged, tried, convicted and executed in 83 days for the killing of two girls in South Carolina in 1944. No physical evidence linked him to the crimes. The skinny black naif, posing for a mugshot in jail stripes, was on a legal steamroller bound for the electric chair. And the defeated look on his face suggests he was well aware of his destiny. The boy was George Junius Stinney Jr., 14, who was accused of killing 2 white girls 70 years ago in the Jim Crow...

George Junius Stinney Jr.,  1929-1944 In a South Carolina prison sixty-six years ago, guards walked a 14-year-old boy, bible tucked under his arm, to the electric chair. At 5' 1" and 95 pounds, the straps didn’t fit, and an electrode was too big for his leg. The switch was pulled and the adult sized death mask fell from George Stinney’s face. Tears streamed from his eyes. Witnesses recoiled in horror as they watched the youngest person executed in the United States in the past century die. Now, a community activist is fighting to clear Stinney’s name, saying the young boy couldn’t have killed two girls. George Frierson, a school board member and textile inspector, believes Stinney’s confession was coerced, and that his execution was just another injustice blacks suffered in Southern courtrooms in the first half of the 1900s. In a couple of cases like Stinney’s, petitions are being made before parole boards and courts are being asked to overturn decisions made ...

George Stinney, Jr., 14, shortly before his execution in the electric chair in 1944.  Exonerated in December  2014. After seven decades, a black 14-year-old boy has been cleared of murder. In 1944, George Stinney was convicted of murdering two white girls in Alcolu, South Carolina. He was executed via the electric chair after his white lawyer called no witnesses and performed no cross-examinations. Judge Carmen Mullen vacated the conviction against Stinney on Wednesday, WISTV reports. In January, a judge agreed to hear new testimony and arguments in the case. At a hearing that month, Solicitor Ernest "Chip" Finney III argued the conviction should stand. "They weren't trying to railroad every black person associated with Alcolu and these little girls. They made a determination based on facts we don't have today that George Stinney should be detained," Finney said. But an attorney arguing on behalf of Stinney said the state h...

A South Carolina lawmaker wants the state to pay for those people it wrongfully executes, beginning with the family of George Stinney. A bill filed in the House of Representatives ahead of the upcoming legislative session would establish the George Stinney Fund, which would provide $10 million to families of those exonerated after being executed, no matter how much time has lapsed. The bill is named for the 14-year-old Black teen convicted in the brutal murder of 2 White girls in Clarendon County and executed by electrocution in June 1944 . RELATED |  He was 14 years, 6 months and 5 days old -- and the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th Century A judge vacated Stinney’s conviction in 2014, finding numerous instances of his constitutional rights being violated, from his arrest to an hours-long trial and conviction by an all-White jury only months after the girls were found dead. “We can’t do justice, because justice would be us resurrecting Mr. Stinney and all...

George Stinney Jr., wrongfully executed at age 14 by ‪South Carolina‬ A memorial service was held last week by family and friends of George Stinney Jr., wrongfully executed at age 14 by ‪South Carolina‬ more than 70 yrs. ago. They added George's face to the stone marker memorializing him. "Family members want all walks of life to know George’s story, so history may never repeat itself." Alcolu, SC (WLTX)- On Saturday the young boy, executed without a fair trial was honored with a memorial. George Stinney Jr. was 14-years-old when he was electrocuted in the connection of the death of two young white girls in Alcolu. George Stinney Jr. was convicted of killing 11-year-old Betty Binnicker and 7-year-old Mary Emma Thames in Alcolu. Three months after his trial he was executed in the electric chair. His name was cleared last year after almost 70 years. Now the family seeks closure. The memorial was organized by 'A New Day' or A.N.D. "...

Katherine Stinney Robinson was just 10 when her 14-year-old brother George Julius Stinney Jr. was arrested, convicted and ultimately executed for the murder of two Alcolu girls in 1944 . Now 80, she said Wednesday that she is grateful God has let her live long enough to see her brother’s name exonerated. “I think it’s long overdue,” she said. “I’m just thrilled because it’s overdue.” Circuit Court Judge Carmen T. Mullen vacated Stinney’s conviction Wednesday in an order signed Tuesday granting Stinney family attorneys’ writ of coram nobis, a rare legal doctrine held over from English law that “corrects errors of fact” when no other remedy is available to the applicant. Stinney was accused of the bludgeoning deaths of Mary Emma Thames, 7, and Betty June Binnicker, 11. “We believe that was the only vehicle with which we had a stone’s chance of getting this conviction overturned,” said attorney Ray Chandler, who worked with attorneys Steve McKenzie and Matt Burgess...

Dylann Roof If prosecutors convict Dylann Storm Roof and then seek the death penalty—and despite calls from Governor Nikki Haley, it’s not clear they will —the Charleston shooting suspect could be sitting on death row for a long time. The last execution in South Carolina was in 2011, despite a list of 44 people awaiting execution. The pace of executions has slowed to a crawl, in a state that has put 282 people to death over approximately the last century. And the reasons that this slowdown has happened may also give prosecutors pause in this case. In its earliest days, South Carolina was notoriously expansive in its definition of what qualified for the death penalty; a slave could be put to death for destroying grain, for instance. It is still one of the top 10 states for per capita executions, following the Supreme Court suspension of the dealth penalty in 1976 and its subsequent reinstatement. But South Carolina’s relationship with capital punishment has gotten complicat...

South Carolina, the state that carried out the execution of a Black 14-year-old boy in 1944, now wants to bring back the firing squad. The House voted 66-43 on Wednesday in favor of adding the option for death-by-firing squad to condemned inmates. The bill passed the state Senate in March, and the governor has said he’s eager to sign it.   Currently, prisoners on death row in South Carolina can choose to die by either lethal injection or electric chair—and that chair has a shameful history. In 1944, South Carolina wrongfully executed George Junius Stinney Jr., a young Black teenager, for allegedly killing two white girls, a crime he was proven innocent of 70 years later.  RELATED | He was 14 years, 6 months and 5 days old -- and the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th Century Stinney’s execution was brought up during deliberations Wednesday by opponents of the death penalty, who discussed the horrors of Stinney’s execution. The boy’s body was so smal...

George Stinney Jr. On the first page of the official sentencing report for George Stinney Jr., the outline of a boy is visible in a short string of numbers. Age: 14. Height: 5-1. Weight: 95. His complexion is listed as Black, his religion as Baptist, his occupation as None. Next to Build one word is typed: Small. On March 24, 1944, George was arrested and charged with the murder of two young white girls, Betty June Binnicker and Mary Emma Thames, who were found beaten to death in a ditch in rural Clarendon County, S.C. One month later he was tried and found guilty. He was executed on June 16, 1944 — the youngest person to be put to death in the 20th century. He was so small that the guards struggled to strap him to the electric chair, and the jolt of electricity knocked the mask from his face. The sentencing report states that George Stinney was “legally electrocuted.” But to call what happened legal is to say only that this boy’s fate was decided in a courtroom, by ...

George Stinney Jr. was electrocuted in South Carolina when he was 14. He died less than 3 months after his arrest for allegedly murdering two white girls. His trial took a day. An all-white jury deliberated 10 minutes. He was posthumously exonerated by a South Carolina court  in 2014. Read more . In 1642, Thomas Granger , 16, was hanged in Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts, for having sex with a mare, a cow and some goats. It was America’s first documented execution of a child offender and the debut of the juvenile death penalty . The practice would end 363 years later after the deaths of at least 366 child offenders — people under the age of 18 at the time of their crime. The youngest girl to be executed was 12-year-old Hannah Ocuish , a Native American child who was hanged in Connecticut in 1786 for murdering a 6-year-old white girl. James Arcene, a Cherokee, was the youngest ever to be condemned. He was hanged in Arkansas in 1885 for a murder-robbery he helped commi...

South Carolina senators Tuesday added a firing squad to the list of execution alternatives if the state can't put condemned inmates to death by lethal injection. The state senate approved the bill on a key 32-11 vote with several Democrats joining Republicans in the proposal that would allow South Carolina to restart executions after nearly 10 years. The state can't put anyone to death right now because its supply of lethal injection drugs expired and it has not been able to buy any more. Currently, inmates on death row can choose between the electric chair and lethal injection, and since the drugs are not available, they pick the method that can't be used. RELATED | Constitution doesn't guarantee condemned inmates a 'painless death,' U.S. Supreme Court rules Firing squad allowed in 3 other states The senate bill keeps lethal injection as an option if the state has the drugs, but requires prison officials to use the electric chair if it is not. An inmate could c...

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has signed into law a bill that forces death row inmates for now to choose between the electric chair or a newly formed firing squad in hopes the state can restart executions after an involuntary 10-year pause. South Carolina had been one of the most prolific states of its size in putting inmates to death. But a lack of lethal injection drugs brought executions to a halt. McMaster signed the bill Friday with no ceremony or fanfare, according to the state legislature's website. It's the first bill the governor decided to deal with after nearly 50 hit his desk Thursday. "The families and loved ones of victims are owed closure and justice by law. Now, we can provide it," McMaster said on Twitter on Monday. Last week state lawmakers gave their final sign offs to the bill, which retains lethal injection as the primary method of execution if the state has the drugs, but requires prison officials to use the electric chair o...