Entries tagged with “Alexander McClay Williams”
Issues
May 22, 2024
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…
Issues
Women
,Aug 01, 2022
Massachusetts Formally Exonerates Last ‘Witch’ Wrongfully Condemned During Salem Hysteria. Will Connecticut Follow Suit?
As Massachusetts formally exonerated the last person condemned for witchcraft in the colony, efforts are under way to clear the names of the 46 people wrongfully charged with witchcraft in neighboring Connecticut during the 17th century Puritan witch hunts. 329 years after she was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death, the Massachusetts state senate amended the state’s budget to include a provision to exonerate Elizabeth Johnson Jr., the last of the people convicted during the Salem…
Issues
Jun 21, 2022
Pennsylvania Teen Exonerated 91 Years After Sham Trial and Execution on Racially Motivated Charges that He Had Murdered a White Woman
An African-American teenager who was convicted and sentenced to death in Pennsylvania on false charges that he had murdered a white woman has been exonerated, 91 years after he was executed. On June 13, 2022, Delaware County Court of Common Pleas Judge Kevin Kelly granted a motion filed jointly by lawyers for Alexander McClay Williams and the Delaware County District Attorney’s office to posthumously overturn Williams’ conviction and death sentence. (Williams is pictured with then-District…
Issues
Jun 19, 2015
Pardon Sought for Black Teen Executed by Pennsylvania 84 Years Ago
84 years after Pennsylvania executed a black 16-year-old for the 1931 murder of his white school matron, the descendants of the boy’s trial lawyers are trying to exonerate him. Samuel Lemon, the great-grandson of Alexander McClay Williams’ defense attorney, William Ridley (pictured), has researched the case and concluded that Williams was innocent of murdering Vida Robare. He is trying to obtain a posthumous pardon for Williams. Robare had been granted a divorce from her ex-husband — whom…