This week, a team of lawyers are asking a South Carolina judge to reopen the case of George Stinney, a 14-year-old black boy who was convicted in a kangaroo trial and executed in 1944 for the murder of two young white girls in a racially segregated mill town.
The only evidence against Stinney was testimony of three white cops who claimed Stinney confessed to the murders. There was no written confession, Stinney denied confessing on the witness stand, and told a cellmate (who’s still alive) that he was innocent.
Stinney’s appointed defense counsel was a local politician running for office who put on no defense whatsoever. He didn’t even question the cops.
The trial, including jury selection, lasted only three hours. An all-white jury convicted Stinney in 10 minutes. From the time of his arrest until his execution in South Carolina’s electric chair, only 81 days passed.
The lawyers hope to obtain a complete exoneration. This is made more difficult by the fact none of the original case evidence was preserved. But they say they’ve located a non-relative alibi witness whose testimony will establish that Stinney couldn’t have committed the crime. According to Wikipedia, there is a plausible suspect — a now-deceased member of a prominent local white family.
In interviews with NBC News, members of the murdered girls’ families say they believe Stinney was guilty, they oppose reopening the case, and they argue everyone should “let the matter rest.” They expressed no concerns about the lack of due process in Stinney’s trial or the weakness of the case against it. Frankly, to me, they come across in the video as Jim Crow southerners. You can watch the video for yourself here:
http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nightly-news/54120358/#54120358
Stinney’s case is not as well known as some of the most prominent civil rights-era lynchings, although it has been taken up by book authors and filmmakers. Regardless of his actual guilt or innocence, his trial was a travesty of “southern justice” amounting to a judicial lynching. No state would get away with a procedure like that today; and, in any event, the Supreme Court has outlawed imposing the death penalty on juveniles. But old attitudes die slowly, if at all, and apparently some southerners still see nothing wrong with the way a black boy was railroaded into the electric chair 70 years ago.