Efforts Underway to Exonerate 14-Year-Old Executed in South Carolina in 1944

Attorneys rep­re­sent­ing the fam­i­ly of George Stinney, Jr., recent­ly filed a request for a posthu­mous exon­er­a­tion of Mr. Stinney, the youngest per­son exe­cut­ed in the U.S. in the 20^th century. 

Stinney, an African-American 14-year-old, was exe­cut­ed in 1944 for the mur­der of two young white girls less than three months after a tri­al that was filled with errors. Although Clarendon County, South Carolina, where the tri­al took place, had a pop­u­la­tion that was 72% black, only whites served on Stinney’s jury. Stinney’s lawyer offered vir­tu­al­ly no defense. His rel­a­tives, who could have offered an ali­bi, were not called to tes­ti­fy. Stinney alleged­ly made a con­fes­sion, but the con­tents of his state­ment have nev­er been revealed. His attor­ney did not file an appeal, so no court ever reviewed his trial. 

In a sup­port­ive brief in the effort to clear Stinney, the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project of Northeastern University School of Law stat­ed, ​“The pros­e­cu­tion of George Stinney con­sti­tut­ed a grave mis­car­riage of jus­tice, caus­ing great suf­fer­ing for his fam­i­ly.… Stinney’s shock­ing treat­ment was incon­sis­tent with the most fun­da­men­tal notions of due process, includ­ing but cer­tain­ly not lim­it­ed to the right to effec­tive assis­tance of counsel.”

A hear­ing on the motion for exon­er­a­tion was held in a South Carolina Circuit Court in January 2014.