George Stinney Jr of African descent was the youngest person to be sentenced to death in the 20th century in the United States.
In March 1944, deep in the Jim Crow South, police came for 14-year-old George Stinney Jr. His parents weren’t at home. His little sister was hiding in the family’s chicken coop behind the house in Alcolu, a segregated mill town in South Carolina, while officers handcuffed George and his older brother, Johnnie, and took them away.
He was accused of killing two white girls, 11-Year-old Betty, and Mary of 7, the bodies were found near the house where the teenager resided with his parents.
At that time, all members of the jury were white. The trial lasted only 2 hours, and the sentence was dictated 10 minutes later.
The Boy’s parents were threatened, and prevented from being present in the courtroom, and subsequently expelled from that city.
Before the execution, George spent 81 days in prison without being able to see his parents.
He was held in solitary, 80 miles from his city. He was heard alone without the presence of his parents or a lawyer.
He was electrocuted with 5,380 volts in his head, imagine all that voltage in a teenager’s head.
70 years later, his innocence was finally proven by a judge in South Carolina.
Watch this video created for the tragedy of young innocent George Stinney:
