Extreme racism and Jim Crow Laws in the Southern United States in the 1940s led to prejudice and tension between blacks and whites. This tension was evident in almost all aspects of society, including in the judicial system. One example of this is George Stinney’s trial and execution. George Stinney was a fourteen-year-old boy who lived in Alcolu, South Carolina. He was convicted of murdering two young white girls, Betty June Binnicker, 11, and Mary Emma Thames, 8, in 1944 (Chapell). After the initial arrest, Stinney supposedly confessed, but there is no written or oral proof that a confession ever occurred. In trial, he received a lawyer that had no experience representing criminal defendants. As the trial proceeded, Stinney’s lawyer failed to call a witness for his defense. The all-white jury deliberated for just 10 minutes before finding him guilty (Wegman). Stinney received the death penalty (Bever). After the sentencing, his lawyer refused to file an appeal to the sentence. On June 16, 1944, George Stinney was executed by electric chair at the South Carolina State Penitentiary in Columbia, South Carolina; only three months after the crime …show more content…
This stand has led to many changing beliefs and opinions of citizens in South Carolina. Most importantly, the case has changed people’s opinions on the death penalty. Lawmakers in South Carolina and throughout the country are using the Stinney case in an attempt to ban capital punishment, also known as the death penalty (Starks). Another impact of Stinney’s exoneration is the affect it had on the Stinney family. Irene Hill, a member of the Stinney family said, “The Stinney family is very much alive, though, and there are thousands of us throughout the United States,” she followed her statement with, “Stinney is a peaceful name…we have always known