George Stinney
George Junius Stinney Jr. (October 21, 1929 – June 16, 1944) was a boy who, at the age of 14, was convicted and then executed in a proceeding later vacated as an unfair trial for the murders of two young white girls in March 1944 – Betty June Binnicker, age 11, and Mary Emma Thames, age 8 – in his hometown of Alcolu, South Carolina. He was convicted, sentenced to death, and executed by electric chair in June 1944, thus becoming the youngest American with an exact birth date confirmed to be both sentenced to death and executed in the 20th century.
George Stinney | |
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George Stinney's 1944 mugshot | |
| Born | George Junius Stinney Jr. October 21, 1929 Pinewood, South Carolina, U.S. |
| Died | June 16, 1944 (aged 14) South Carolina Penitentiary, Columbia, South Carolina, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Execution by electrocution |
| Resting place | Calvary Baptist Church Cemetery, Paxville, South Carolina, U.S. |
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| Known for | Being wrongfully executed |
| Criminal status |
Conviction vacated |
| Conviction(s) | Murder (posthumously vacated) |
| Criminal penalty | Death |
Date apprehended | March 23, 1944 |
A re-examination of Stinney's case began in 2004, and several individuals and the Northeastern University School of Law sought a judicial review. Stinney's murder conviction was vacated in 2014, seventy years after he was executed, with a South Carolina court ruling that he had not received a fair trial, and was thus wrongfully executed.