DONT KEEP STROLLING!!!! STOP AND READ THIS. ITS WORTH IT, I PROMISE. WE NEED TO LEARN ABOUT OUR BLACK HISTORY. 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. Stinney, an African-American youth from South Carolina, was convicted in a two-hour trial 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 that the girls had spoken with Stinney and his sister shortly before their murder, and the testimony of three police officers that Stinney had confessed. He was executed by electric chair. The girls were last seen 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. Following Stinneys arrest, Stinneys father was fired from his job, and his family was forced to flee the town under threat of being lynched, leaving George with no support during his 81-day confinement and trial. The entire trial, including jury selection, took one day. Stinneys court-appointed defense counsel was a tax commissioner campaigning for election to local political office. Stinneys lawyer did not challenge the three police officers who testified Stinney confessed to the two murders, despite this being the only evidence against him. The police did not make written records of Stinneys purported confession, and at trial, Stinney denied confessing to the crime. Stinneys trial had an all-white jury due to black people being denied the right to vote, which was required for people to serve as jurors. 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 examination. Stinneys 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.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 23:56:50 +0000
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