Must Read: The Sad Story Of The Youngest Afro American Ever Executed With Electric Chair

Editor’s Note: As we read this story, we felt quite sad over all the Afro AMericans have passed through. Wefelt sad for the family. Thank God that the Civil Rights Movement came up to challenge this kind of nonsence. Read on, please.

The Africa Archive
When Jr. was executed for the
killings of two white girls in 1944, he was so
small that the straps of South Carolina’s electric
chair didn’t fit him properly, and he had to sit on
a bookfor his electrocution.

Stinney was just 14 years old at the time and
became the youngest person put to death in the
United States in the 20th century. But
Wednesday, 70 years after the fact, Circuit Judge
Carmen Mullen tossed out his conviction, which
was reached after a trial that didn’t even last a
full day and was never appealed. As the
Associated Press noted, it took Mullen “nearly
four times as long to issue her ruling as it took
in 1944 to go from arrest to execution.”
“I can think of no greater injustice,” Mullen wrote
in her 29-page order, the AP reported.
Stinney, who was black, was arrested for the
beating deaths of two young girls in the
segregated town of Alcolu. There wasn’t any
physical evidence linking him the crimes, and he
wasn’t allowed to see his parents after he was
apprehended.

“Given the particularized circumstances of
Stinney’s case, I find by a preponderance of the
evidence standard, that a violation of the
Defendant’s procedural due process rights
tainted his prosecution,” Mullen wrote in her
decision, according to CNN.

From the AP:
Stinney’s case has long been whispered in civil
rights circles in South Carolina as an example of
how a black person could be railroaded by a
justice system during the Jim Crow era where
the investigators, prosecutors and juries were all
white.

The case received renewed attention because of
a crusade by textile inspector and school board
member George Frierson. Armed with a binder
full of newspaper articles and other evidence, he
and a law firm believed the teen represented
everything that was wrong with South Carolina
during the era of segregation.

“It was obviously a long shot but one we thought
was worth taking,” said attorney Matt Burgess,
whose firm argued that Stinney should get a new
trial.

Earlier this year, Stinney’s sister, Amie Ruffner
told the Guardian: “I never went back [to Alcolu].
I curse that place. It was the destruction of my
family and the killing of my brother.” # rip