"George," Brian Francis and Christopher Michael

Write About Now



  “'I didn’t, didn’t do it,' Wilford Hunter said Stinney told him. 
He said, ‘Why would they kill me for something I didn’t do?’ ”

"...After a two-hour trial and a 10-minute jury deliberation, Stinney was convicted of murder on April 24 and sentenced to die by electrocution, according to a book by Mark R. Jones. At the time, 14 was the age of criminal responsibility. His lawyer, a local political figure, chose not to appeal.

Stinney’s initial trial, the evidence – or lack of it – and the speed with which he was convicted seemed to illustrate how a young black boy was railroaded by an all-white justice system. ...,""...10 Years to Convict...70 Years to Exonerate...," Lindsey Bever, Democracy Dies in Darkness: The Washington Post, December 18, 2014.

"...A few miles off I-95, past acres of brown-and-white fields where blackbirds circle overhead, this small town in the heart of Deep South cotton country isn't known for much. It has a post office and a few churches, some abandoned houses and some nicer ones, ramshackle trailers and cotton fields. After church on a recent Sunday there, George Frierson was scuffing a shiny black dress shoe across some gravel at a railroad crossing. Back when he was a kid the rail line split this tiny, rural town along racial lines. But for blacks like him growing up in Alcolu, the train tracks signified something even more sinister than segregation.

'Where they actually found the girls' bodies, they say it was just along the tracks,' he said...," "...A Modern Understanding...," Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, Corey Hutchins, December 11, 2013.