Current Events > 14y/o black kid sentenced to death

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https://i.imgur.com/l7uABus.jpeg

On June 16, 1944 in South Carolina, George Stinney Jr. was the youngest person sentenced to death in the 20th century in the United States.

He was only 14 when he was executed by electric chair.

He was accused of killing two white girls, Betty, 11 years old & Mary, 7. The bodies were found in a ditch of a nearby lumbar yard, completely battered and broken.

He and his sister had seen the girls earlier in the day when they had ridden their bicycles by. So he was hauled in for questioning.

He was questioned alone without his parents and without an attorney present. (Gideon v Wainwright wasnt until 1963-right to a legal consul)

At that time all the jurors were white.
The trial lasted only 2 hours and the sentence handed down 10 minutes later.
The child's parents were threatened by a lynch mob, prevented from seeing him and run out of town.

Before the execution, George spent 81 days without being able to see his parents.
He was trapped in a solitary cell, 80 km from home.

He was electrocuted with 5,380 volts in the head.

In front of a crowd.

70 years later, his innocence was finally proven by a judge in South Carolina.
The beam with which the two girls were killed, weighed more than 19.07 kilograms. Therefore, it was impossible for Stinney to be able to lift it (he weighed less than 100 pounds) let alone be able to hit hard enough to kill the two girls.

He was used as a scapegoat.

George Stinney Jr was a young black boy railroaded by an all white justice system.

The child was innocent.

This was only 76 years ago.

tbh fuck all the people involved with this shit. How and why did people not see through it all? Like did they unironically think he was guilty? What was their fucking problem?

You know why they did it.

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god dammit

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Well that was fucking depressing.
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Thats beyond fucked up. Theres a special place in hell for the scum that did that to him

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That's a travesty.

although to be honest, I'm relieved it was in the 40s, I thought you were going to say it was someone recent.

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look at the fear in his face. imagine the pain he suffered.

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Dark_SilverX posted...

You know why they did it.

Well yeah, they racist. But did they unironically think the kid actually did it?

If it was all for the racism, how can they be ok with having this kid be electrocute then at the same time be ok with the real killer still out there freee?

I've read this before and seen the photos. Doesn't get easier.

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berlyman101 posted...

look at the fear in his face. imagine the pain he suffered.

The picture is a reenactment but it was probably pretty close.

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People are dumb and racism was prominent back then. Racist logic took over and they probably actually did think he did it, besides the people that set it up and knew the truth

toyota posted...

But did they unironically think the kid actually did it?

no

the men with power thought "this will ensure our failure to find the actual murderer isn't held against us."

the men in the crowd thought "he'd grow up to do it anyway."

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toyota posted...

Well yeah, they racist. But did they unironically think the kid actually did it?

If it was all for the racism, how can they be ok with having this kid be electrocute then at the same time be ok with the real killer still out there freee?

I'm sure the jury was willing to believe he did it, but I doubt the cops did.

Shit's really sad and fucked up, and I can't help but think about the stories you won't hear about.

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They probably forced him to confess and that's all the jury probably needed to hear to believe it and be willing to sentence him to death

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yea I have heard of this case. it was one of the most fucked up trials in US history. it sucks it took so long to prove he was innocent. nobody that had a part to play in getting the kid executed was still alive when the truth finally came out. so we couldn't confront them about it. but yea, you have to wonder about people who are capable sentencing a child to the electric chair

berlyman101 posted...

look at the fear in his face. imagine the pain he suffered.

its what they all fear in this country in this system

fuck this place is dead rotten at its core
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Yea. The clip from that movie is hard to watch (that's whats in the OP, that's not the actual execution), i can't imagine what the real kid was feeling. Our country's history isn't all one that should be celebrated.

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The story of America is disgusting

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toyota posted...

Well yeah, they racist. But did they unironically think the kid actually did it?

If it was all for the racism, how can they be ok with having this kid be electrocute then at the same time be ok with the real killer still out there freee?

They knew he didn't do it, but since they disliked black people they slapped him with the crime.

Sadly during these troubling times, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, so they were able to frame him and it cost him his life.

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Dark_SilverX posted...

since they disliked black people they slapped him with the crime.

Sadly during these troubling times, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, so they were able to frame him and it cost him his life.

its fucked up how people can be ok with that especially since there is an actually sick mother fucker out there who actually brutally killed those girls. that mentality makes absolutely no sense to me

UnfairRepresent posted...

Well that was fucking depressing.

toyota posted...

its fucked up how people can be ok with that especially since there is an actually sick mother fucker out there who actually brutally killed those girls

that kinda thing still happens to this day. there are a ton of people in prison for crimes other people committed. and it's been proven many times that lawyers, cops, even judges are aware they didn't do it. but they don't care. they just need a scapegoat. people want someone to pay for it. even if that person ends up being the one who had nothing to do with it. humans can be assholes

TheVipaGTS posted...

Yea. The clip from that movie is hard to watch (that's whats in the OP, that's not the actual execution), i can't imagine what the real kid was feeling. Our country's history isn't all one that should be celebrated.

At 7:25 pm, standing 5 feet 1 inch tall and weighing just over 90 lbs three police officers approached the cell where George was being held, one officer entered and took him out of his cell. The officers escorted him to the execution room where they placed him in the electric chair, using a Bible he was carrying as a booster seat because George was so small.[18] George was then restrained by his arms, legs, body to the chair. His father was allowed to approach George to say his final words to his son. An officer asked George if he had any last words to say, but George just shook his head. George Stinney could only whimper and take big deep breaths as one of the officers pulled a strap from the chair and placed it over his mouth, causing George to break into tears. They then placed the face mask over his face, which did not fit him, as George continued sobbing. When the lethal electricity was applied, the mask covering George's face slipped off, revealing George's burned scalp and tears streaming down his face, saliva dripping from his mouth.[18][19] Stinney was declared dead after eight minutes. His teeth were smoking and he had one eye missing. He was buried in an unmarked grave in Sumter, South Carolina

Reading this is hard...

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toyota posted...

its fucked up how people can be ok with that especially since there is an actually sick mother fucker out there who actually brutally killed those girls. that mentality makes absolutely no sense to me

welcome to racism. its stupid. Look at the story of Emmitt Till. Beaten so badly and they only took 2 weeks to decide his murderers could go free. An that stuff wasn't that long ago. Remnants still exist today. But so many people in this country don't want to admit it because "slavery is over, everything is solved!"..

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PMarth2002 posted...

They probably forced him to confess and that's all the jury probably needed to hear to believe it and be willing to sentence him to death

This. They most likely held him awake, kept screaming at him, demanding answers, didnt let him eat, etc until he was a mess that said anything they wanted just to make it stop.
The jury heard that he had confessed and that was enough for them to decide to put him down to "save society".

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TheoryzC posted...

The story of America is disgusting

In fairness, the story of a lot of countries is disgusting. America has just historically resisted improving from it :/

Sickening. I cant even imagine

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Over 70 years ago.

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guesswho33 posted...

Over 70 years ago.

Does that seem like a long time to you? People on this board will have parents who were alive at that time.

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pinky0926 posted...

Does that seem like a long time to you? People on this board will have parents who were alive at that time.

Dwelling on something from that long ago is just wanting there to be drama.

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guesswho33 posted...

Dwelling on something from that long ago is just wanting there to be drama.

Be completely honest. Do you feel the same about say, the Tianenmen Square massacre? Are people just bringing it up to be "dramatic"? Should we just forget it happened, let bygones be bygones?

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guesswho33 posted...

Dwelling on something from that long ago is just wanting there to be drama.

we just witnessed a lynching three months ago and this is the horseshit you offer.

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berlyman101 posted...

we just witnessed a lynching three months ago and this is the horseshit you offer.

But that was 3 weeks ago lets not dwell on it

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RadiantAdolin posted...

In fairness, the story of a lot of countries is disgusting. America has just historically resisted improving from it :/

The US was established less than 250 years ago. Thats a blip in the timeline of civilization. A lot of other countries have had several hundred or even more than a thousand years of a head start to stabilize and work through their issues, even though none have been completely successful yet. In the time it has existed, the US went from lawlessness, genocide and legal slavery to 50 states and several territories practicing representative rule, codified laws and civil rights, and provides trade, military defense and humanitarian assistance throughout the world.

The US had a bloody, painful start and things are not perfectly just yet. But to say it historically resisted improving, considering it is a relatively young nation and now has global influence, lacks reasonable perspective.

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