Thread by @Pateezy_

THE STORY OF GEORGE STINNEY Jr. , the youngest Black person to be wrongfully executed

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Born in 1929 in Alcolu, South Carolina, George Stinney Jr was arrested and charged in March 1944, at the age of 14, for murdering two young girls, Betty June Binnicker, age 11, and Mary Emma Thames, age 7. Here's how the story went...

Alcolu was a small, working-class mill town, where white and black neighborhoods were separated by railroad tracks. Racial segregation was a major thing at that time. There were segregated schools and churches for both the whites and blacks. Being found in the wrong

place was a crime hence there was least interaction between the two races.

George Stinney Jr lived with his father, George Stinney Sr and his mother, Aimé. He had four siblings. Stinney's father worked at the town's sawmill, and the family resided in company housing.

It so happened that one Day, the bodies of Betty June Binnicker and Mary Emma Thames were found in a ditch on the African-American side of Alcolu on March 23, 1944. The girls had failed to return home after leaving during the night before

It is reported that the two girls were seen riding their bicycles in the hood looking for 'maypops', a local name for passion flowers which they were in love with. They had even passed by Stinney's home and asked Stinney and his sister where they could get the flowers

Stinney's sister, Aimé had later on claimed that he was with his brother at the time the two murders occurred hence he had nothing to do with them.

The two bodies were found in very absurd conditions. Both girls had suffered blunt force trauma to the face and head. The girls had been beaten with a weapon, variously reported as a piece of blunt metal or a railroad spike. The medical reports indicated so. Their skulls

had also been punctured. Moreover, the medical examiner reported no evidence of sexual assault to the younger girl, though the genitalia of the older girl were slightly bruised. Both girls' hymens remained intact at the time of the autopsies.

According to an article published widely, bearing mistakes in the boy's name, The Sheriff announced the arrest of 'George Junius' but her sister even claimed that he had no middle name. It is stated that the boy had confessed to the two murders and led the officers

to where he had kept the piece of iron he used to execute the two murders.

George Stinney, Jr. and his older brother John were arrested on suspicion of murdering the girls. John was released by police, but George was held in custody. He was not allowed to see his parents until after his trial and conviction.

What's even more worse was that, George's seventh grade teacher was forced to give a false testimony about him. The teacher claimed that George Stinney Jr was a boy who loved violence back at school and hence he had committed the two murders.

Following Stinney's arrest, his father was fired from his job at the local sawmill, and the Stinney family had to immediately vacate their company housing. The family feared for their safety. Stinney's parents did not see him again before the trial.

George Stinney Jr had been detained at a jail in Columbia which was 50 miles away from his hometown, Alcolu. He received no support during his 81-days confinement and trial. What's even more worse was that George Stinney Jr was being questioned alone, in the absence

of his family and attorney. The entire trial against George Stinney Jr took place on April, 24th 1944. Charles Powden, a tax commissioner campaigning for a local elective post was the court's chosen Stinney's counsel for the case. Most of Alcolu's voters were whites hence

he wanted to conduct the case in manner which pleased the majority whites.

Plowden did not challenge the three police officers who testified that Stinney confessed to the two murders. He also did not challenge the prosecution's presentation of two differing 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 written record of George's confession apart from the prosecutor's statement.

More than 1,000 white Americans crowded the courtroom, but no black Americans were allowed. As was typical at the time, Stinney was tried before an all-white jury.

After deliberating for fewer than ten minutes, the jury found Stinney guilty of murder. Judge Philip H. Stoll sentenced Stinney to death by electrocution. There is no transcript of the trial and no appeal was filed by Stinney's counsel.

Several churches, George's family and other organisations appealed to the then governor of that area, Olin Johnson to grant the boy clemency given his age but he sadly declined. It was so much strange that George Stinney Jr had been said to have confessed to raping

the two girls before killing them but the autopsy reports had proved otherwise, the two girls were never raped. Hence this was another indicator that George Stinney Jr was innocent

Stinney was executed on June 16, 1944, at 7:30 p.m. He was prepared for execution by electric chair, using a Bible as a booster seat because Stinney was too small for the chair.

The case was later on reopened in 2014 by a fair jury and George Stinney Jr exonerated for the crimes after new evidence was brought to court

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