New evidence could clear 14-year-old executed by South Carolina

[dzika]

Over 67 years after 14-year-old George Junius Stinney Jr. was put to death by the state of South Carolina, he may soon be cleared of the crime that people familiar with the case say he never could have committed.

A lawyer and an activist both told Raw Story recently that new evidence will show that the black boy could not have possibly murdered two white girls, 11-year-old Betty June Binnicker and seven-year-old Mary Emma Thames.

Stinney, the youngest person to receive the death penalty in the last 100 years, was executed on June 16, 1944. At five feet one inch and only 95 pounds, the straps of the electric chair did not fit the boy. His feet could not touch the floor. As he was hit with the first 2,400-volt surge of electricity, the mask covering his face slipped off, “revealing his wide-open, tearful eyes and saliva coming from his mouth,” according to author Joy James.

After two more jolts of electricity, the boy was dead.

Read more:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/10/03/new-evidence-could-clear-14-year-old-executed-by-south-carolina/

[marmar]

1. Stories like this really make me hope there is such a thing as karma.

nt

[newfie11]

2. Poor baby!

I cannot think of bad enough words for what was done to this child.

[AsahinaKimi]

3. I never knew about this..

Even today, its so painful. What monsters could strap a child (who could barely fit) to an electric chair? May his spirit find peace.

[surrealAmerican]

11. They probably found it easy to do.

They were convinced this child brutally murdered two young girls. That's a big part of the problem here: it doesn't really matter how heinous the crime was if the person you're punishing didn't commit it.

[Chorophyll]

This is heartbreaking.

I used to feel sort of "meh" about the death penalty, but now I'm convinced it's wrong.

No government has the right to take a life. You can't give it back again if you fucked up.

[malaise]

4. I look at that kid and cry

:cry: :cry:

The hatred for the Afro-American male is frightening. Now they throw as many as possible into prisons for newly invented crimes like smoking a spliff.
Racism has changed in form but it's the same old hatred

[rhett o rick]

5. Justice doesnt matter to our overlords. GW Bush and Perry don't care if some of the

hundreds they put to death were innocent. Their deaths were to prove to the gullible among us that they were tough on law and order. If a few innocents are killed, it doesnt matter because they are part of the faceless peon class. Actually killing innocent people is a specific tactic used by oppressors to terrorize the population.

[Little Star]

6. That story is enough to break your heart. n/t

[Blue_Tires]

7. Man...Just last week wasn't there a DUer or two shouting the

"He wouldn't have been executed if he wasn't guilty!" line or something similar??

[hlthe2b]

8. What monsters.....Sadly, those attitudes did not completely die with him...

:cry: RIP, little Stinney. I hope there is a kinder realm for you.

[Tatiana]

9. I hope the people responsible for this little boy's execution received their just due. n/t

[octothorpe]

10. Jesus Christ! Even if he was guilty WTF? 14 yrs old?

At least this wouldn't happen anymore (I think)


Poor kid. I hope all the people around this thought about this kid for the rest of their lives. This is probably wrong, but I hope the real perpetrator of the murders died an equally agonizing death.

[Wilms]

12. ^