George Stinney Jr. Exonerated of Murder 70 Years After Execution at 14
Photo: George Stinney Jr appears in an undated police booking photo provided by the South Carolina Department of Archives and History. Attorneys in South Carolina say they have found fresh evidence that warrants a new trial in the case of a 14-year-old black teenager put to death nearly 70 years ago for the murders of two white girls. George Stinney Jr. was the youngest person to be executed in the United States in the last century, and attorneys say the request for another trial so long after a defendant's death is the first of its kind in South Carolina.
George Stinney Jr. was only 14 when he was sentenced to death and executed for allegedly assaulting two white girls; on Wednesday, he was exonerated for the crime and his brothers and sisters relieved. "They took my brother away and I never saw my mother laugh again," Amie Ruffner, Stinney's sister, previously said. "I would love his name to be cleared." That wish was granted on Wednesday, after South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Carmen Mullins reviewed the case and decided to overturn the ruling due to the fact that Stinney was not adequately represented by his own attorney. Mullins also stated that the boy's confession was likely coerced by authorities and there were not enough witnesses or physical evidence to convict the 14-year-old. Stinney, 14, was charged with the murders of 11-year-old Betty June Binnicker and 7-year-old Mary Emma Thames. He was arrested after people in the town of Acolu said he had been picking flowers with the young girls. Stinney confessed to the crime but not until he was separated by his parents and put through an interrogation by police. Ultimately, he was found guilty of the murder after jurors deliberated for only 10 minutes.
UPI: George Stinney Jr., executed at 14, cleared of murder 70 years later
WTOC: George Stinney, 14-year-old convicted of '44 murder, exonerated