George Stinney Jr: The Tragic Case of a Child Executed in the USA

George Stinney Jr may have been innocent.

There were no witnesses, no evidence and nothing to link him to the scene of the crime.

His family claim that George was in the house doing his homework at the time. When the cry went up that two young girls were missing, he joined the search party to find them.

Moreover, George and his sister informed the sheriff that they had seen the missing girls earlier in the day. Betty June Binnicker and Mary Emma Thames had been picking flowers, when the siblings passed by.

The Stinneys carried on home, but it had been a link. That single sighting was enough to see George arrested and herded into the local police station, once the bodies of both girls had been found.

The teenager was reportedly given ice-cream (or a candy bar) to confess to the murders. He'd been locked in a room with several police officers for over an hour. He was neither offered nor given access to a lawyer.

His parents were barred from the vicinity, not allowed to see him until after his trial. As soon as George had been arrested, his father had been fired from his job at the local lumber yard. Their home was owned by his ex-employer and it was instantly forfeit. Most of the town was owned by the same man and the Stinneys were told outright to leave on the next train. They weren't given time to pack.

Outside the cells, a mob of local people had gathered, convinced that a child murderer was housed inside. They demanded that the teenager be brought out and handed over. The sheriff refused, transferring him instead to Charleston for George's own protection. His family had no idea where he'd gone.

George Stinney Jr was held in isolation, until he went to court a month later. There his court appointed lawyer Charles Plowden didn't attempt to prove his client's innocence. Instead, the whole case rested on whether a fourteen year old could be held accountable for his actions.

The jury took just 10 minutes to state that he could and should receive the death penalty. Plowden stated that there would be no appeal.

Until now, young George had remained relatively calm. The court records describe him as co-operative. Observers noted that he was very polite.

But all indications show that he had no idea about the depth of trouble he was in. The boy certainly didn't know that he would be facing the death penalty.

Once the verdict was read out, George started to panic. Back at the prison, he was allowed to write to his mother. He sent a letter. He swore hadn't committed the crimes. He begged her to help him.

Neither George, nor the authorities, mentioned that he'd already been on trial. What could she do, except pray? Mrs Stinney was not an educated lady. She was illiterate. Her daughter had to read that heart-breaking letter to her.

A few weeks later, Amie Stinney was allowed access to her son.

She had taken her husband and six other children to live with her mother in Pinewood, in another part of the state. A neighbor there gave her a lift to South Carolina Penitentiary in Columbia, where she was allowed to see George for the first time since he had been arrested.

The terrified fourteen year old told her that he didn't do it, but there was nothing that she could do to help him. Once his mother was ushered out, she was not to see him again. She had received no official word that he had been charged, let alone tried and found guilty. She heard nothing more until the notice came to claim his body.

She broke down upon seeing him, "They didn't have to burn him up like that!" 

But for the final outcome, it had been a botched execution. Small for his age, at only 5ft 1" and 90lbs, there had been some difficulty in fitting George into the electric chair. After the first 2,400 volts, his mask had slipped off, revealing his wide-eyed and tearful face. The next two surges had killed him.

It has been nearly 70 years since George Stinney Jr was executed, but his remaining siblings still sound raw with emotion when they talk about it. In amongst the facts, statistics and human rights issues, it's often difficult to get a sense of the boy at the center of it.

"(George) was like my idol, you know." Katherine Stinney Robinson told Sound Portraits.

She had been with him when they encountered the girls. She said that Betty June and Mary Emma had cycled by the Stinney house, looking for may pop flowers. Katherine and George told them that they didn't know where the flowers grew and the girls went away.

Mrs Robinson went on describing her brother.  "He was very smart in school, very artistic. He could draw all kinds of things."

This was a view shared by her elder brother Reverend Charles Stinney. In the interview with W.E A.L.L B.E, he explained that George had then returned indoors to complete his homework. He'd been smart in school and that was a great help to their mother, as he could assist her with reading items useful for their household. Rev Stinney continued, "He did a lot of drawing. He was pretty good at that also."

Rev Stinney 'wasn't even 11' on the day that George was arrested for murdering the two girls. He admits to not understanding precisely what was going on, especially since he had been out of the house at the time. Katherine had been home, but she was still none the wiser. She talked about men in suits coming and taking her brother. They gave no reason.

There was barely time for any of them to react, before they were bundled with their parents and other siblings onto a train to Pinewood, South Carolina. They only had the clothes in which they stood, when the family arrived at their maternal grandmother's home. A neighbor had assured them that it was the safest thing to do.  She doubted that any harm would come to George. It just didn't seem feasible.

That was no comfort to Amie Stinney though. Mrs Robinson recalled that their mother wouldn't stop crying. Her 'little eyes (were) all swollen', as she prayed endlessly for God to change the minds of her son's captors. She kept repeating over and over again that her son didn't do it.

Their brother's body was sent to them in Pinewood, where he was buried in a family plot close to his grandmother's home.The Stinneys were devout Baptists and took some comfort in the fact that George was now out of harm in Heaven. After his execution, the family leaned upon their faith to cope with his loss.

It took months for his father, George Stinney Sr, to find work, after which he was able to afford the train fare back to their former home. He was able to recover some of their possessions and bring them back to the family.

Rev Stinney simply called it 'a hurting thing'. Both noted that, once George was dead, neither of their parents would discuss it. The children were raised not knowing exactly what had happened, beyond the fact that their brother was dead, until they were adults themselves. But the silence didn't mean that he was forgotten. Their parents never got over it.

Mr and Mrs Stinney are both gone now too. Only one of their four sons and two of their three daughters remain to try and clear George's name. They've both stated outright that no-one in their family ever doubted George's innocence. Any effort to exonerate him has their blessing.