70 years later, George Stinney’s conviction vacated

Seven decades after George Stinney’s speedy trial, conviction and execution in the deaths of two young girls in a segregated Clarendon County mill town, his family finally received some justice.

Stinney, who was black, was just 14 in March 1944 when he was arrested and charged with killing two white girls. The bodies of Betty June Binnicker, 11, and Mary Emma Thames, 7, were found with severe head wounds in a ditch.

Stinney, who weighed just 95 pounds and stood 5 feet 1 inch, lived nearby and was arrested the same day. Three months later, Stinney became the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century.

Just two hours had elapsed between the beginning of the trial and Stinney’s conviction, with an all-white Clarendon County jury deliberatinag just 10 minutes before reaching the verdict. At the time, blacks were not allowed to serve on juries.

There was reportedly no cross-examination of witnesses, and evidence included a confession obtained by a white police officer with no parent or guardian present, which Stinney supporters have disputed.

Stinney’s white, court-appointed lawyer reportedly did not offer a defense or file for an appeal, which would have delayed the execution.

Civil rights activists have for years pointed to the case as an example of how easily a black defendant could be railroaded through an all-white judicial system.

Seventy years later, in December 2014, Circuit Court Judge Carmen Mullen vacated Stinney’s murder conviction, saying he got an unfair trial and was wrongly executed.

This story was originally published December 14, 2015 at 9:04 AM with the headline "70 years later, George Stinney’s conviction vacated."