70 years after 14 year old George Stinney Jnr.
was executed for allegedly beating two young
white girls to death in Alcolu, South Carolina, a
judge yesterday Wednesday Dec 17th threw out
his murder conviction.
When George was executed in 1944, he was so
small he had to seat on a phone book in the
electric chair. He's officially the youngest person
to be executed in the U.S. in the 20th century.
George was found guilty of beating the girls, 11
and 8 years old with a railroad spike.
His trial
lasted only three hours and it took the a jury of
all white people just 10 minutes to find him
guilty - this was just 3 months after the girls
were found murdered. This was back when there
was a lot of segregation in America.
George was arrested after he confessed to the
crime, but his older sister always maintained
that George was coerced into confessing and
couldn't have committed the murder because he
was with her the day of the murder.
Civil rights advocates have been trying for years
to clear George Stinney Jr's name.
They
managed to get the case reopened and yesterday
morning, Judge Carmen Mullins tossed the
murder conviction.
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