June 16, 1944 the US judicial system set a real record. On this day, the youngest criminal of the 20th century - George Stinney - was executed. At the time the sentence was carried out, the teenager was 14 full years. This case became truly world famous in 2014, when, after 70 years, the executed minor was posthumously acquitted.
Spring nightmare in the town of Alcolu
Alcolu is a small town in South Carolina. In 1944, it was divided into two halves by rail. One part was inhabited by black-skinned townspeople, and the second - white-skinned. On March 23, two white girls - Mary Emma Thames (8 years old) and Betty June Binnicker (11 years old) - went for a walk in the "black" quarter. The girlfriends did not return home, but there were witnesses who claimed to have seen the missing children talking to 14-year-old George Stinney near his house. Girls began to search the whole city immediately after the disappearance. The bodies were found in a ditch filled with dirty water, the cause of death in both cases was a head injury incompatible with life. George Stinney was arrested on suspicion of committing this crime.
Was there an investigation?
The teenager fell under suspicion, as the girls were last seen with him. Initially, the accusation was based precisely on this argument. The news of the suspicion of an African American in the killing of two white-skinned children excited a calm town. Threats from local residents began to come in relation to the entire Stinnie family. George’s relatives literally fled the city, frightened of a possible reprisal, and were forced to leave the boy to the mercy of fate. As a lawyer, the suspect received a tax commissioner about to enter the civil service. According to some sources, George Stinney confessed to a double murder, as well as an attempt to rape the eldest of the girls. However, there are no official documents confirming these testimonies.
Jury trial
The trial lasted less than three hours, which is already strange for such a serious accusation. The doctors involved in the examination of the bodies and the person who discovered them were involved as witnesses. Despite the fact that the defendant was black, there were not a single African American among the jurors, all of them were white. Witnesses from the defense were also not involved, moreover, there is reason to believe that the lawyer worked negligently. The verdict was passed in just 10 minutes. The jury briefly conferred and concluded that George Stinney is guilty and deserves the death penalty.
Execution or new murder of an innocent?
According to eyewitnesses, the teenager listened to the verdict, noticeably nervous. The Stinnie family did not have the necessary material resources to review the case again. The sentence was carried out only three months after the verdict. At that time, South Carolina, like many other states of America, was the place where the death penalty was carried out using an electric chair. The fourteen-year-old teenager was so short that he even "did not grow up" to this terrible device. The straps for fixing his hands were hopelessly large for him, so he simply had to tie his limbs. And in order to properly seat George, they put a Bible on the seat, which he brought with him. The execution took place on June 16, 1944, and over time, this whole story began to be forgotten even in Alkola.
Posthumous excuse
In 2013, the George Stinney case interested some American historians. At the same time, the family of the executed teenager began to look for ways to rehabilitate the honor of her deceased relative. Katherine Stinney, George’s sister, hired a team of lawyers to challenge a court decision 70 years ago. Initially, the judges did not want to tackle this case, since there were almost no survivors of witnesses and eyewitnesses of that process. There is also little documentation in the archive, and, importantly, among the documents there is no recognition of George himself. And yet the case was indeed re-examined. It was possible to prove that several serious violations were committed in the investigation and trial. The defendant did not have normal defense, and the evidence of his guilt does not look convincing enough. George Stinney's acquittal brought considerable relief to his family. Of course, not a single court can return to the life of a teenager, but even posthumous rehabilitation means a lot to the relatives of the convict and their descendants.
Fame and "freedom" after death
The second court even found a defense witness. This is a man who was sitting in the same cell with Stinney sentenced to death. He said that George himself tried several times to talk with him about the fact that he was convicted by mistake. The acquittal of the court struck the entire world community. And indeed, it’s not every day that people executed in an electric chair are recognized as innocent. Posthumously George Stinney became a real celebrity. Several documentaries were shot about him, the most famous of which is “83 Days” by Charles Burnett. And in 1988, the book Carolina Skeletons was written, its author - journalist and writer David Stout - outlines the details of the Stinnie case in the form of a work of art. Curiously, the protagonist of the novel is innocent. This work was subsequently filmed while retaining the original name.