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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