SUMTER, S.C. — The judge, prosecutor and defense lawyers all agree that justice, at least by today’s standards, wasn’t carried out 70 years ago when a 14-year-old black boy was sent to the electric chair for killing two white girls.
But figuring out exactly what happened in March 1944 may be elusive, they said during the first day of a hearing into whether George Stinney should get a new trial. People who attended the original trial have died, and most of the evidence, including a transcript of the trial and his confession, has disappeared.
Stinney was convicted of killing 11-year-old Betty Binnicker and 7-year-old Mary Emma Thames just over a month after their bodies were found beaten in the head and left in a water-filled ditch. The trial lasted less than a day in the tiny Southern mill town of Alcolu, separated, as most were in those days, by race. His lawyers argued his conviction was tainted by racism and scant evidence.
Circuit Judge Carmen Mullen said her task isn’t deciding whether Stinney is guilty or innocent but whether he got a fair trial.
“What can I do? What can I rectify?” Mullen asked at the beginning of the hearing. “And even if we did retry, Mr. Stinney, what would be the result? Again, none of us have the power to bring that 14-year-old child back.”
If Mullen finds in favor of Stinney, it could open the door for hundreds of other appeals.
