George Stinney

George Junius Stinney, Jr.
Stinney mug shot
Born	(1929-10-21)October 21, 1929 Alcolu, South Carolina
Died	June 16, 1944(1944-06-16) (aged 14) Columbia, South Carolina, United States
Criminal penalty	Death by electric chair
Criminal status	Deceased
Conviction(s)	First-degree murder

George Junius Stinney, Jr., (October 21, 1929 – June 16, 1944) was, at age 14, the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century.^[1]

Stinney, an African-American youth, was convicted of the first-degree murder of two pre-teen white girls: 11-year-old Betty June Binnicker, and 8-year-old Mary Emma Thames; however, no physical evidence existed in the case, and the sole evidence against Stinney was the circumstantial fact the girls had spoken with Stinney and his sister shortly before their murder, and the testimony of three white police officers, who testified at a trial which lasted barely two hours,^[2] that Stinney had confessed to the murders.

Since Stinney's conviction and execution, the question of his guilt, the validity of his confession, and the judicial process leading to his execution have been criticized as "suspicious at best and a miscarriage of justice at worst",^[3] and as an example of the many injustices African-Americans suffer in courtrooms in the United States.^[4]

Following Stinney's arrest, Stinney's father was fired from his job. Stinney's parents and siblings were given the choice of leaving town or being lynched. The family was forced to flee, leaving George Stinney with no support during his 81-day confinement and trial.

The entire Stinney trial, including jury selection, took one day. Stinney's court-appointed defense counsel was a tax commissioner campaigning for election to local political office. Stinney's lawyer did not challenge the three police officers who testified Stinney confessed to the two murders, despite this being the only evidence presented by the prosecution. The police did not make written records of Stinney's purported confession, and at trial, Stinney denied confessing to the crime.

The jury at Stinney's trial consisted entirely of white people; due to racial segregation, no African-Americans were present in the courtroom.

Other than the testimony of the three police officers, at trial, prosecutors called three inconsequential witnesses: the man who discovered the bodies of the two girls, and the two doctors who performed the post mortem. Stinney's counsel did not call any witnesses. Trial presentation lasted two-and-a-half hours. The jury took ten minutes to deliberate, after which they returned with a guilty verdict.

Case background

Stinney was arrested on suspicion of murdering two girls, Betty June Binnicker, age 11, and Mary Emma Thames, age 8, in Alcolu, Clarendon County, South Carolina, on March 23, 1944.^[5] Alcolu was a small, working class, mill town, where whites and blacks were separated by railroad tracks. The girls had disappeared while out riding their bicycles looking for flowers. As they passed the Stinney property, they asked young George Stinney and his sister, Katherine, if they knew where to find "maypops," a local name for passionflowers. When the girls did not return, search parties were organized, with hundreds of volunteers. The bodies of the girls were found the next morning in a ditch filled with muddy water. Both had suffered severe head wounds.^[6]

Execution

The execution of George Stinney was carried out by Old Sparky at Central Correctional Institution in Columbia, on June 16, 1944. At 7:30 p.m., Stinney walked to the execution chamber with a Bible under his arm, which he later used as a booster seat in the electric chair. ^[6] Standing 5 foot 2 inches (157 cm) tall and weighing just over 90 pounds (40 kg),^[5] his size (relative to the fully grown prisoners) presented difficulties in securing him to the frame holding the electrodes. Nor did the state's adult-sized face-mask fit him; as he was hit with the first 2,400 V surge of electricity, the mask covering his face slipped off, “revealing his wide-open, tearful eyes and saliva coming from his mouth...After two more jolts of electricity, the boy was dead."^[7][8] Stinney was declared dead within four minutes of the initial electrocution. From the time of the murders until Stinney's execution, 81 days had passed.^[6]

Latest evidence

On October 25, 2013, Steve McKenzie, Ray Chandler and Matt Burgess of Coffey, Chandler & McKenzie, P.A., filed a Motion for New Trial Pursuant to South Carolina Rule of Criminal Procedure 29(b).

South Carolina lawyers Steve McKenzie, Ray Chandler and Matt Burgess are supporting George Frierson in an attempt to obtain a posthumous pardon, if not a complete, judicial exoneration, for Stinney. Frierson is a historian from Alcolu who came across the case in 2004 while doing historical research. McKenzie in an interview in 2011 said he has no doubt this case was an injustice. He said that the lack of preserved evidence made clearing Stinney’s name difficult, but he hoped that the affidavits of three new witnesses, one of which could provide an alibi, would be enough to re-open the case.

If we can get the case re-opened, we can go to the judge and say, ‘There wasn’t any reason to convict this child. There was no evidence to present to the jury. There was no transcript. This case needs to be re-opened. This is an injustice that needs to be righted.’ I’m pretty optimistic that if we can get the witnesses we need to come forward, we will be successful in court. We hopefully have a witness that’s going to say — that’s non-family, non-relative witness — who is going to be able to tie all this in and say that they were basically an alibi witness. They were there with Mr. Stinney and this did not occur.

—Steve McKenzie

George Frierson stated in interviews that “...there has been a person that has been named as being the culprit, who is now deceased. And it was said by the family that there was a deathbed confession.” Frierson said that the rumored culprit came from a well-known, prominent white family. A member, or members of that family, had served on the initial coroner’s inquest jury which had recommended that Stinney be prosecuted.^[7]

Books and films about Stinney's case

The case was the basis for the 1988 novel Carolina Skeletons by David Stout, who received for it the 1989 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel.^[9] Stout suggests in the novel that Stinney, whom he renames Linus Bragg, was innocent. The plot arises around a fictitious nephew of Stinney/Bragg, who unravels the truth about the case decades later and learns on the way about brighter and darker sides of Stinney's/Bragg's town.

The novel was adapted into a film "Carolina Skeletons," directed by John Erman, featuring Kenny Blank as Stinney/Linus Bragg. Lou Gossett, Jr. played Stinney's/Bragg's younger brother James,^[10] who takes over the role of the nephew in the novel. Blank received for his portrayal of Stinney/Bragg a Young Artist Award nomination for Best Young Actor in a Television Movie in 1991.^[11]

See also

• List of people executed in South Carolina

References

Bibliography

• Jones, Mark R. South Carolina Killers: Crimes of Passion. The History Press, 2007. ISBN 1-59629-395-0. (Chapter Five: "Too Young to Die. The Execution of George Stinney, Jr. (1944).)