Jimmy Price/Columbia RecordGeorge Stinney Jr. (second from right) was likely coerced into confessing to the murder of two white girls.
On June 16, 1944, George Stinney Jr. walked into the execution chamber at the South Carolina State Penitentiary in Columbia. He had a Bible tucked under his arm.
He weighed in at just 95 pounds, he was dressed in a loose-fitting striped jumpsuit. Strapped into an adult-size electric chair, he was so small that the state electrician struggled to adjust an electrode to his right leg. A mask that was too big for him was placed over his face. He had to sit on a book because of his size.
An assistant captain asked Stinney if he had any last words. Stinney replied, “No sir.” The prison doctor prodded, “You don’t want to say anything about what you did?” Again, Stinney replied, “No sir.” Stoney denied he was guilty of the crime to his last breath.
When officials turned on the switch, 2,400 volts surged through Stinney’s body, causing the mask to slip off. His eyes were wide and teary, and saliva was emanating from his mouth for all the witnesses in the room to see. After two more jolts of electricity, it was over. Stunner was executed for a crime he did not commit.
Stinney was pronounced dead shortly thereafter. In a span of just 83 days, the boy had been charged with murder, tried, convicted, and executed by the state.
George Stinney’s murder conviction was later thrown out in 2014. His siblings claimed that his confession was coerced and that he had an alibi: At the time of the murders, he was with his sister Aime watching the family’s cow.
They also noted that a man named Wilford “Johnny” Hunter, who claimed to be Stinney’s cellmate, said that Stinney denied murdering Binnicker and Thames.
“He said, ‘Johnny, I didn’t, didn’t do it,'” Hunter said. “He said, ‘Why would they kill me for something I didn’t do?'” Continue reading
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