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George Junius Stinney, Jr. (October 21, 1929 – June 16, 1944) was an African-American youth convicted at age 14 of murder in 1944 in his home town of Alcolu, South Carolina. He was the youngest person in United States history in the 20th-century to be sentenced to death and to be executed. Stinney was convicted in 1944 in a two-hour trial of the first-degree murder of two white girls: 11-year-old Betty June Binnicker and 8-year-old Mary Emma Thames. After being arrested, Stinney was said to have confessed to the crime. There was no written record of his conviction, and no transcript of the brief trial. He was executed by electric chair. Since Stinney's conviction and execution, the question of his guilt, the validity of his confession, and the judicial process leading to his execution have been criticized as "suspicious at best and a miscarriage of justice at worst." A group of people investigated his case, seeking to gain justice for Stinney. In 2013 his family petitioned for a new trial. On December 17, 2014, his conviction was posthumously vacated 70 years after his execution, because the circuit court judge ruled that he had not been given a fair trial; he had no effective defense and his Sixth Amendment rights had been violated. 〔(Harriet McCloud, "South Carolina judge tosses conviction of black teen executed in 1944" ), Reuters, 17 December 2014, accessed 20 November 2015〕 ==Case background== George Stinney was arrested on suspicion of murdering two girls, Betty June Binnicker, age 11, and Mary Emma Thames, age 8, in their joint home town of Alcolu, Clarendon County, South Carolina, on March 23, 1944.〔 Alcolu was a small, working-class mill town, where white and black neighborhoods were separated by railroad tracks. The girls were last seen riding their bicycles looking for flowers. As they passed the Stinney property, they asked young George Stinney and his sister, Katherine,〔(George Stinney was executed at 14. Can his family now clear his name? )〕 if they knew where to find "maypops", a local name for passionflowers.〔 When the girls did not return home, search parties were organized. The bodies of the girls were found the next morning, on the black side of town, in a ditch filled with muddy water. According to an article reported by the wire services on March 24, 1944, and published widely, with the mistake of the boy's name preserved, the sheriff announced the arrest and said that "George Junius" had confessed and led officers to "a hidden piece of iron.".〔〔 Both girls had suffered blunt force trauma to the face and head. Reports differed as to what kind of weapon had been used.〔 According to a report by the medical examiner, these wounds had been "inflicted by a blunt instrument with a round head, about the size of a hammer." The girls had not been sexually assaulted. The ME noted reported the genitalia of the older girl was slightly bruised.〔(Tim Walker, "After 70 years, justice in sight for boy America sent to the electric chair" ), ''The Independent,'' 22 Jan 2014〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「George Stinney」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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