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George Stinney
Sign in to saveAlso known as George Junius Stinney Jr.
Black American wrongfully convicted of murder (1929–1944)
Key facts
- Born
- George Junius Stinney Jr. , ( 1929-10-21 ) October 21, 1929, Pinewood, South Carolina , U.S.
- Died
- June 16, 1944 (1944-06-16) (aged 14), South Carolina Penitentiary , South Carolina, U.S.
- Resting place
- Calvary Baptist Church Cemetery, Paxville , South Carolina, U.S.
- Monuments
- Headstone memorial in Alcolu , Three memorial crosses dedicated to Stinney and other two victims where the bodies were found
- Known for
- Being wrongfully executed
- Criminal status
- Executed by electrocution (June 16, 1944 ( 1944-06-16 ) ) Conviction vacated , (December 16, 2014)
- Conviction
- Murder (posthumously vacated)
- Criminal penalty
- Death
- Date apprehended
- March 23, 1944
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- George
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Pinewood
- Place of death
- Columbia
- Image
- George Stinney mugshot (cropped).jpg
Show 7 more facts
- date of birth
- 1929-10-21
- date of death
- 1944-06-16
- manner of death
- capital punishment
- social classification
- convict
- Commons category
- George Stinney
- name in native language
- George Junius Stinney Jr.
- cause of death
- electrocution
via Wikidata · CC0
~24 min read
Encyclopedic overview
George Junius Stinney Jr. (October 21, 1929 – June 16, 1944) was an African American boy who was wrongfully executed at the age of 14 after being convicted, during an unfair trial, for the murders of two white girls – 11-year-old Betty June Binnicker (December 9, 1932 – March 22, 1944) and 8-year-old Mary Emma Thames (March 14, 1936 – March 22, 1944) – in his hometown of Alcolu, South Carolina. He was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death on a single day in April 1944 and then executed by electric chair on June 16, 1944, after Governor Olin D. Johnston refused to grant him clemency.
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, with a South Carolina court ruling that he had not received a fair trial, and was thus wrongfully executed. Stinney is the youngest American with an exact birth date confirmed to be both sentenced to death and executed in the 20th century.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “George Stinney” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.