Family of Youngest Person Executed in Pennsylvania History Sues County for His Wrongful Conviction and Execution 93 Years Ago

Susie Williams Carter was just a baby when her 16-year-old broth­er, Alexander McClay Williams, was con­vict­ed of mur­der and exe­cut­ed in Pennsylvania in 1931. Over 90 years lat­er, Ms. Carter, now 94, con­tin­ues her family’s deter­mi­na­tion to clear her brother’s name. In June 2022, a Delaware County, Pennsylvania judge agreed that law enforce­ment had dis­re­gard­ed evi­dence and coerced Mr. Williams into sign­ing mul­ti­ple false con­fes­sions. All charges against Mr. Williams were posthu­mous­ly dis­missed and then-Governor Tom Wolf apol­o­gized to his fam­i­ly, call­ing Mr. Williams’ exe­cu­tion ​“an egre­gious mis­car­riage of jus­tice.” Mr. Williams’ fam­i­ly has now filed suit against Delaware County and the estates of the detec­tive involved in his case, seek­ing puni­tive dam­ages for Mr. Williams wrong­ful con­vic­tion and exe­cu­tion. ​“The next step to bring is jus­tice,” Ms. Carter said.

Mr. Williams’ arrest occurred after the 1930 mur­der of Vida Robare, a white matron at the reform school he attend­ed. Despite Mr. Williams’ ini­tial denials of involve­ment, he was inter­ro­gat­ed with­out a lawyer or par­ent and even­tu­al­ly was coerced into false­ly con­fess­ing to the mur­der. Critical evi­dence, includ­ing a bloody adult hand­print that did not match Mr. Williams, and the fact of Ms. Robare’s recent divorce from an abu­sive ex-hus­band, were over­looked by inves­ti­ga­tors. An all-white jury con­vict­ed Mr. Williams of cap­i­tal mur­der and he was sent to the elec­tric chair on June 8, 1931.

Ms. Carter recalled the impact of her brother’s exe­cu­tion on her fam­i­ly, express­ing sor­row over the pain her par­ents endured. ​“It breaks my heart when I think of all the things that my moth­er and father went through,” she said. With knowl­edge that her broth­er con­fessed to the crime, Ms. Carter had assumed he was guilty until Mr. Lemon pre­sent­ed her with his new­ly dis­cov­ered research. Mr. Carter likened her brother’s pro­longed injus­tice to the bib­li­cal sto­ry of Cain and Abel, say­ing, ​“my brother’s blood must have cried out all these years. And he final­ly got it answered.”