Teenager shot to death in Milwaukee by 76-year-old white neighbor who falsely accused him of burglarizing his home

Darius Simmons, 13

Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin did not get word of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin's death until the day after he had been shot by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman. Trayvon had gone to a nearby convenient store to purchase a package of Skittles candy and a can of ice tea. He didn’t make back home alive.

Zimmerman, then 27, suspected Trayvon of being a criminal, scouting a condo to burglarize in the gated complex the night he was shot. Referring to Trayvon as a “suspect”, Zimmerman questioned the teenager’s right to be on the

Patricia Larry, mother of Darius

property where his father lived with his girlfriend. 

Zimmerman, a wannabe cop, followed Trayvon, apparently knowing he had no right or authority to question him. The 911 dispatcher told Zimmerman to stay in his truck and not approach Trayvon because the police was on the way. Zimmerman refused, taking matters into his own hands.

Unlike the mother of 13-year-old Darius Simmons, Trayvon’s parents did not witness the shooting death of their son. Fulton and Martin did not watch Trayvon take his last breath before dying while lying in the street, a block from his house.

Patricia Larry said she saw the bullet hole in her young son’s chest. She and her older son held Darius as life quickly slipped out his body as he lay in the street.

On July 17, 2013, Patricia Larry took the witness stand to tell how John Henry

John Henry Spooner

Spooner, a next door neighbor, pointed a gun at her Simmon's chest and pulled the trigger, killing him as she watched in horror.

According to the Wisconsin Journal Sentinel the day Larry testified she said, "As I turned around, Mr. Spooner was standing there in front of Darius," Patricia Larry said. "He got a gun, and he pointed it at Darius."


She said Spooner, 76, demanded that Simmons put his hands up. The 13-year-old complied. Larry said she asked the defendant why "he had that gun on (her) baby."


"He told Darius that he's going to teach him not to steal," she said. "And he shot him."
Spooner, who is white, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the killing of Simmons, his black teenage neighbor. If convicted, he faces life in prison — unless the jury finds him not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect."


Larry continued, struggling to choke back tears as she described the aftermath of the shooting.

John Spooner caught on his home surveillance camera confronting Darius Simmons before shooting him point blank in the chest

"I ran off the porch to my son," she said. "I checked for a pulse. I checked both of his wrists. He didn't have a pulse so I went to his neck, and it was very faint. . . . I pulled up his shirt and I could see that he had a bullet hole."

Larry said her son was unarmed and did nothing to provoke Spooner.

This tragedy took place because Spooner’s house had been burglarized two days before the shooting. He suspected Simmons and his brother Theodore Larry of breaking into his house, stealing four shotguns. Larry allowed the police to search her house within hours of the shooting. No guns were found.

When 18-year-old Theodore Larry testified he described what he witnessed on the morning of May 31, 2012. Larry said he came downstairs to find his mother in the frame of their front door. “Spooner was on the sidewalk pointing a gun at the doorway.”

The Wisconsin Journal Sentinel wrote that Larry said, “He ran out the back and found his brother lying on the curb around the block. He crying as he took his lifeless brother in his arms.”

The bullet fired at Simmons chest exited his back. The shooting was caught on a home surveillance camera that Spooner had installed to catch the burglars. The video was shown at his trial as evidence. Spooner said he shot Simmons because he wanted him to return his shotguns.

On the video Darrius Simmons is seen retrieving a trash can from the curb, and then walking back towards his house. Spooner is seen confronting the teen, pointing a gun at him. Simmons appeared to comply with Spooner’s demand. Simmons was shot point blank in the chest, after which the teen turned and ran.

“I’ve never seen my mom like that,” Theodore Larry recalled on the witness stand. “My mom told me (Spooner) had shot my little brother. She said, ‘You ain’t going out there.’”

“Milwaukee Police Officer Michael Uraniak testified that the defendant made several statements to him at the scene of the shooting, including that ‘they are going to throw the book at me because I shot the kid’, and commenting on his poor health, saying, ‘I really don’t have much longer to live on this Earth.’”

When he testified in his own defense, Spooner said the shooting was justified.

The Wisconsin Journal Sentinel wrote, “Spooner testified at trial against his attorney's advice and said he killed the teen because he really wanted his guns back. He also acknowledged wanting to kill Darius' older brother when he ran to his sibling's aid as he lay dying in the street. But Spooner said he didn't shoot the brother because he didn't want to hit any of the others who had gathered around.”

Spooner said, “They had to rob the house. Why’d they do that to me? They pushed me over the edge, I guess. I don’t know. As far as being sorry, I don’t know if I did right or wrong.”

Judge Jeffrey Wagner told Spooner that what he had done was wrong. “You took the life of a child.”

Spooner attempted to shot at the fleeing teenager two more times. He missed the second time, and the gun jammed on the third attempt. A court appointed psychiatrist testified that Spooner has "anger issues."

A 12 member jury found Spooner guilty first degree intentional homicide. He was sentenced to life in prison. Patricia Larry has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Spooner. The guilty verdict was handed down less than a week after George Zimmerman was acquitted by a six member jury for killing Trayvon Martin.

The tragic shooting of an unarmed teenage boy on a rainy night in Sanford, Florida

Trayvon Martin parents Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin

Family of Marine veteran Kenneth Chamberlain

Sometimes you have to exploit a high profile case to get justice for cases that are largely ignored by the media. It's common knowledge the media are not interested in the shooting deaths of Black males; the kidnappings, rapes and murders of Black women and children, that also includes babies. 

The same "we are not interested" rule applies to Hispanics and "others." Only White women are important and newsworthy to the major media. The prettier the White female victim is, the more aggressive the coverage. Nonetheless, White children and men receive more attention than minorities.

The media, politicians and pundits, especially Fox mouthpieces, are stepping all over each other, rushing to voice their opinions about the sudden awakening in Black communities in the aftermath of the shooting death of an unarmed 17-year-old African American teenager. The media are suggesting that Black people should stop protesting and let justice take its course in the shooting death of Travon Benjamin Martin who was shot killed by an adult named George Zimmerman, 29, in Sanford, Florida.

The media and pundits are accusing Rev. Al Sharpton, the NAACP and other Black leaders of stirring up racial animosity, putting innocent people in danger. Siding with Zimmerman, the critics espouse that Trayvon was apparently behaving "suspiciously", the reason he drew Zimmerman's attention. Critics have readily accepted and believe the shooter's version of what happened. Trayvon must have done something wrong, otherwise, he would be alive today. Trayvon and Zimmerman are the only witnesses; one is dead and the other is fighting to stay out of prison.

The next step in this tragedy is to dehumanize the 17-year-old, a common tactic used by the media and police departments. The media desperately wants Martin to be a high school dropout, a gang banger, a two-bit hoodlum with an arm-length record of arrests and convictions. This would make the story easier to write. 

The media want his death to be irrelevant and counted as a statistic. The media want Trayvon Martin to come from a single parent home, an absent father who is in prison, jobless or on drugs and incapable supporting his son financially and emotionally. The media want Martin's mother to have several children out of wedlock by different men, totally negligent in her parental duties, and a long-time welfare recipient on crack. 

Trayvon Martin does not fit a stereotype. He has two loving parents, neither of whom converse in slang or Ebonics. They are middle class and intelligent. The media are unhappy with that. Knowing that Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton are divorced is not sensational enough to bother with. No scandal there. So the next step was to search Trayvon's social accounts in search of reportable news to prove that he was a gang banger and street thug. They learned nothing that set him aside from other teenagers who boast, brag and tell all of their business on Facebook and Twitter.

As we all now know the head of Madam Justice was twisted backwards in Stanford, Florida February 26, 2012. Someone told her that she should hear no evil, see no evil. And the person who took Trayvon Martin’s life that rainy night was set free. The police chief saw no evil, heard no evil in George Zimmerman's actions. He is free as a bird. Zimmerman, the "White Hispanic" is free to make choices.  The dead teenager, Trayvon Martin, an African American, can no longer make choices. He is only free to lay silent and lifeless in a cold grave. His parents can no longer caress him. See his smile. Listen to him talk. However, Trayvon's thousands of supporters of all hues, along with his grieving parents, are crying out for him. They are demanding that real justice be done.

Zimmerman was not arrested after killing Trayvon due to Florida's free-to-kill law officially called Stand Your Ground. Gun lovers and the NRA applauded Zimmerman for standing his ground. The unarmed teenager did not get a chance to stand his ground. The mortician who prepared Trayvon's body for burial said there were no tale-tale injuries or scars on Trayvon's body or hands to indicate that he had been in a life-and-death struggle with Zimmerman. He had a single shot to the heart.

Al Sharpton, MSNBC host of Politics Nation, and civil right activists understands that drawing attention to a case like this can lead to judicial re-examination, and reopening of similar shootings that have gone unnoticed by the media. There are hundreds of these files stored in cold case files across America. The number is increasing every day. One example is the police shooting death of former Marine Kenneth Chamberlain, November 19, 2011. The story's headline reads: Racially Motivated Killing the Media Missed? NY Police Called Out on Medical Alert Shooting Death of 68 Year Old Black Veteran.

Juan Gonzalez and Amy Goodman of Democracy Now wrote in AlterNet, March 29: “As the shooting death of Trayvon Martin continues to draw national attention, today we look at another controversial shooting of an African-American male that has received far less scrutiny. On the morning of November 19th, a 68-year-old former Marine named Kenneth Chamberlain, with a heart condition, accidentally pressed the button on his medical alert system while sleeping. Responding to the alert, police officers from the city of White Plains, New York arrived at Chamberlain’s apartment in a public housing complex shortly after 5 a.m. By the time the police left the apartment Kenneth Chamberlain was dead, shot twice in the chest by a police officer inside his apartment. 

"Police gained entry to Chamberlain’s apartment only after they took his front door off its hinges. Officers first shot him with a taser, then a beanbag shotgun, and then with live ammunition. Several months after his death, the name of the officer who killed Kenneth Chamberlain has yet to be released. The DA has vowed to convene a grand jury to determine if any of the officers should face charges,” writes Gonzalez and Goodman.

Another example among the many that stories that I found is an article by Earl Ofari Hutchinson that appeared March 30 in The Grio. He write about the shooting death of 19 year-old Kendrec McDade in Pasadena, CA. 

“The two Pasadena police officers who shot and killed 19-year-old Kendrec McDade Saturday night did not have their patrol car lights or sirens on when they approached the unarmed teenager. Police were responding to an armed robbery call that turned out to be false. The 911 caller, 26-year-old Oscar Felipe Carrillo, admitted to police that he lied about two suspects having a gun. He has been arrested and is awaiting potential charges of involuntary manslaughter.

“Pasadena police spokesperson Phlanté Riddle said the department does not allow officers to turn on patrol car lights or sirens if the emergency has no imminent danger. Carrillo told the dispatcher two African-American men pointed a gun at him and stole his backpack," writes Hutchinson.

Another related story in Pasadena Star News, March 27, written by Brian Charles, revealed that, “The lawyer for slain teenager Kendrec McDade's family on Tuesday described the shooting of the former Azusa High School football standout as a drive-by conducted by a member of the Pasadena Police Department.

"Attorney Caree Harper said an unidentified officer rolled down the window of his patrol car and fired at least one shot at the 19-year-old, while a second officer chasing on foot opened fire as well. The volley of as many as 10 shots killed McDade. Both officers said McDade was grabbing at his waistband, which led them to believe he was reaching for a weapon. The officers believed McDade to be a suspect in an armed robbery.”

McDade was unarmed. He was innocent. He was African American.

Neighborhood Watch volunteer George Zimmerman quickly resorted to the excuses made by police officers when they shot and kill black males:

(a) I feared for my life.

(b) I thought he was reaching for a weapon.

(c) He reached for something in his waistband. 

(d) I saw something in his hand.

These hackneyed excuses have worked well  for police officers for decades. Zimmerman reached into the same old grab bag and pulled them out to justify his murderous rage against Trayvon Martin.

Trayvon Martin was talking on his cell phone to a female friend at the time Zimmerman stalked him. You know. . . the cloak and dagger stuff you see in the movies and on TV. Martin had gone to a nearby 7-Eleven during an NBA halftime to buy a package of Skittles and a can Arizona Ice Tea. He did not get the chance to return to his father's apartment. He was consumed with looking over his shoulders, searching for a hiding place. No police was chasing him. He had not committed a crime. He had not robbed the 7-Eleven. He was only "armed" with these "dangerous" weapons on his person: Skittles, a can of tea, a cell phone, and wearing a hoodie. He apparently looked like a threat to society, a gang banger, who was out on a rainy night scouting apartments and cars to burglarize.

Without evidence or a personal knowledge of Martin's history, Zimmerman knew immediately that this Black teenage male "looks like he's on drugs or something", and “up to no good.” By God! Wannabe cop Zimmerman was going to eradicate this gated neighborhood of these Black thugs and criminals! After all, he said, "These assholes always get away!" 

Miami Herald reporter Frances Robles, in a news story titled Shooter of Trayvon Martin habitual caller to cops, wrote that Zimmerman cooperated with the police on the night of the shooting, relaying his side of the story. It was decided there was no probable cause to arrest him. As noted in a recent video of him getting out of a police patrol car, Zimmerman was clearly handcuffed.  Everyone assumed that he had been arrested, as the lead investigator suggested. 

Robles writes: "On at least two prior occasions, the Stanford Police Department was accused of turning their heads when officers  are involved in violent encounters with Blacks. In 2010 police waited seven weeks to arrest a lieutenant's son who was caught on video sucker-punching a homeless Black man."

As we all have heard, the police dispatcher told Zimmerman not to follow Martin. "We don't need you to do that" he was told. The dispatcher said she was sending an officer. Zimmerman disregarded her suggestion. He wanted to be the cop on the beat.  Hell, he could not allow this young Black criminal to get away! Not this time! Not under his watch!

According to Robles, "Police volunteer program coordinator Wendy Dorival said she met Zimmerman in September at a community neighborhood watch presentation.

“I said, ‘If it’s someone you don’t recognize, call us. We’ll figure it out,"' Dorival said. 

She told those in attendance to “Observe from a safe location. There’s even a slide about not being a vigilante police. I don’t know how many more times I can repeat it.”

"Police Chief Bill Lee said that although police do not encourage watch program volunteers to carry weapons, he recognizes a citizen’s constitutional right to do so."

For the critics who are asking where was Rev. Sharpton in the other police shootings, I think they should ask themselves: "Where were you?" It is easy to quarterback and throw stones while sitting in the safety of their living rooms, watching these horrific events dramatized in living color on national TV. Sharpton cannot be everywhere.

The Grio also wrote a piece on McDade. “. . .the other is Kendrec McDade. He was also a Black teen, a former high school football star at Azusa High School in a suburb of Los Angeles, and had no criminal record. When the dust settled, McDade also lay dead.

“In his case, he was slain by Pasadena, California police officers. McDade, like Martin, was unarmed. Police, acting on a bogus tip about a robbery, allegedly confronted McDade and a friend on March 24th, and then opened fire when they claimed they saw him reach for something in his pants.

“The shooting happened at night. Police claimed a surveillance videotape showed McDade as a 'lookout' in a petty theft attempt, but refused demands to produce the tape. Police and city officials, the NAACP and the California Legislative Black Caucus branded the shooting a tragedy, and official's promised an independent investigation. However, as with Trayvon Martin's shooter, George Zimmerman, Pasadena police did not say what action, if any, they took against the officers that killed McDade."
 

"Am I next?" A simple but profound question.

George Zimmerman

Trayvon Martin

Kendrec McDade

Double murder of 2 White girls in a small town divided by race and railroad tracks

George Stinney, Jr; a copy of his fingerprints 

UPDATE: December 2014: After 70 years George Junis Stinney, Jr has been exonerated for the double murders of  June Binnicker and Mary Emma Thames, two White girls, in 1944 in Clarendon Alcolu, South Carolina. 

Judge Carmen Mullen of Beaufort, vacated the conviction against Stinney on Wednesday, December 17. In January, a judge agreed to hear new testimony and arguments in the case. 

Mullen made no finding of whether Stinney was guilty or innocent in the death of two White girls he was accused of killing. Segregation and intimidation of African Americans were rummaging across South Carolina, and  African Americans were at the mercy of angry White people in Clarendon County.

Third Circuit Solicitor Ernest Finney 111,  “ . . . praised Mullen who took nearly a year to write her 28-page opinion for doing a fine job of deliberating over some very novel issues that had to be addressed. As I understand it, this is not an exoneration of the young man, but it is a statement that due process was not complied with in the way it should have been.

"Mullens found numerous errors: Stinney's confession was likely coerced; the all-White jury was not a jury of his peers and his court appointed lawyer did little or nothing to defend him. There was no appeal of the case. Today juveniles cannot be executed. Less than two months passed between the trial and the execution." (The State, South Carolina's Homepage) 

On October 25, 2013, a 27-page motion was filed by lawyers to grant George Stinney, Jr. a new trial in hopes of posthumously clearing his name. Steve McKenzie, the lead attorney in the case, said they are confident that they can present enough evidence, so the judge will look at "this from the standards of today and say, 'this was not justice that was served back in 1944,'" said McKenzie.

According to another recent article in the Grio, " . . . the motion also includes two sworn statements from Stinney's two siblings, who say George was with family completing chores at the time of the murders and could not have committed the crime." 

 

The Grio interviewed Wilford 'Johnny' Hunter, who was jailed for car theft in 1944. He said he was in the cell with George Stinney. Hunter said they became friends, and the teenager told him that he did not kill the two girls. 

He said, ''Johnny  I didn't do it. Why would they want to kill me for something I didn't do? For years . . .I used to have dreams," Hunter said, "About [Stinney] and the electric chair."  

A few months ago I watched a true-life 2005 documentary titled The Trials of  Darryl Hunt. 

The documentary was about a young African American male, 19, born and raised in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Hunt was convicted to raping and murdering Deborah Sykes, 25, in 1984. She was a White woman employed at the Sentinel as a newspaper copy editor. This documentary got my attention, because it reminded me of other similar stories I had read about about Black males and young Black boys. They were always guilty before they were considered innocent.

The Sentinel reported that Sykes was stabbed 16 times. She was raped and sodomized on the morning of August 10, 1984. Reportedly, she was on her way to work.

14-year-old George Stinney, Jr. and another prisoner are escorted into the death chamber with another Black male as two jailers standby at the South Carolina State Penitentiary in Columbia.

Police did not find any physical evidence connecting Hunt to the crime. Nevertheless, he was convicted by a jury composed of one African American female and 11 Whites. Hunt was sentenced to life in prison, but was eventually freed by DNA evidence. 

In 2003 Willard E. Brown, an African American, and career criminal, confessed to the rape/murder of Deborah Sykes. DNA evidence confirmed that Brown was the killer. Hunt, who proclaimed his innocence throughout his imprisonment, served 19.5 years in prison. He was awarded $1, 650,000 million after filing a lawsuit against the state of North Carolina.

This brief journey into history is not only about Darryl Hunt. As I said in the first paragraph, his story reminded me of other similar stories. Hunt's story reminded of a baby faced 14-year old boy name George Stinney, Jr., an African American teenager, who was born in Alcolu, in Clarendon County, South Carolina, October 21, 1929.

I wish I could write that Stinney’s story was a rarity in 1944, but I cannot. None of these "guilty until proven guiltier" cases were peculiar to the kinfolk of hanged and executed African Americans. Speedy trials and even faster sentences of death have never been rare in Black communities throughout the United States. A White woman could scream "rape" and most assuredly the accused, regardless of his proclaims of innocence, would be sentenced to death. Kangaroo trials were disguised as actual trials. All White jurors did not pretend to deliberate in jury rooms.

Recently, several authors and journalists have written about the forgotten story of George  Stinney, Jr.; a true tale of a double murder in a small town. In the articles Alcolu is described as a small, working class town, where Blacks and Whites were separated by railroad tracks and race. Ironically, there is still a railroad tracks separation of Blacks and Whites in states all across America.

At the time Stinney was accused of committing these two brutal murders he was 5'1" tall and weighed between 90 and 95 pounds. When angry eyes zeroed squarely on him, pointing accusatory fingers at the youngster, there was no abject reasoning, or process of elimination among the White citizens in Alcolu. They wanted revenge for the killing of two White girls.

Over the span of 24 hours or less, local police officers arrested 14-year-old Stinney, charging him with brutally killing of Betty June Binnicker, 11, and Mary Emma Thames, 8.  According to limited accounts regarding this tragedy on March 23, 1944, the girls rode their bicycles across the railroad tracks into the Black community. It's said they were looking for maypops, a yellow edible fruit flower.

George Stinney's brother, Rev. Charles Stinney, in an interview with WEBEALL Radio,  said the police "rounded up several Black boys in the neighborhood." Alcolu police said Stinney used a railroad spike to beat the girls to death. They surmised that he dragged their bodies, along with their bicycles, down to a nearby creek. This murderous rampage occurred in broad daylight. None of Stinney’s neighbors came forward to say they had witnessed the beating deaths. None of his neighbors came forward to say they witnessed Stinney dragging the girls' lifeless bodies down to a nearby creek. Their bodies were found the next day by a White man, who later testified for the prosecution.

Quick (personal) analysis: Stinney was light in weight. He supposedly beat the two girls to death a with railroad spike, then dragged the two dead girls--both dead weight--down to a creek, along with their bicycles. There were no reported screams from the girls. It was still daylight. Stinney would have to make at least four trips to the creek without stopping. Surely someone in the neighborhood would have seen him dragging the dead girls to the creek.  A grown man couldn't have pulled this off this bloody feat without someone seeing him. And, he had the frame of mind to clean up the crime scene, making sure there were no footprints in the crime area. He weighed 95 pounds.

Stinney's weight eliminates the possibility of him being a muscular teenager, physically capable of committing two beating deaths. There was no mention of bloody clothes found in his home. No mention of a bloody crime scene. No bloody railroad spike was ever found. No White males in Alcolu were suspected or questioned. It takes strength to beat someone to death. One has to assume that one girl stood by still in panic, and watched her friend getting beat to death before she was finally beaten.

 A story about George Stinney was written in the Grio, September 28, 2011, by Zerlina Maxwell. The headline asked:  Was one of the youngest ever executed innocent?  Maxwell's article drew national attention to the 67-year-old story. According to Maxwell, “George Junis Stinney was even part of the search crew and told a bystander simply that he had seen the girls earlier that day. This claim was enough probable cause for the South Carolina police to arrest Stinney for the double murder, even though, the idea of him being strong enough to kill not one but two girls is a stretch.

"Despite this fact, the police hauled Stinney into the station for hours of intense interrogation, without the presence of either of his parents. Reports claim the police offered Stinney ice cream if he confessed to them that he committed the double murder. Stinney confessed. There is no written record of his confession in the archives. There is no physical evidence linking Stinney to the murder. There is no paper record of Stinney’s conviction,” writes Maxwell.  “This was South Carolina in 1944, with a Black male defendant, two young White female victims, and an all White, male jury. Stinney never stood a chance.”

Following Stinney’s arrest his family was given an ultimatum: leave town immediately or stay in Alcolu and face an angry mob. Stinney's father, who worked at Alderman Lumber Mill, was fired and forced out of their rental house owned by the company he worked for. Charles Stinney said they were not given time to pack their personal belongings. They left Alcolu the same evening Stinney was arrested. They go out of town with nothing but the clothes on their backs.  The Stinney family was forced to leave a son and brother behind to face his trial and predictable fate, alone and scared.

Stinney was represented by Charles Plowden, 31, a tax commissioner, who had political ambitions. It is not clear if he was an attorney who worked as tax commissioner. He was appointed by the court to represent Stinney. Plowden did not protest or object to the testimonies of the police officers, all claiming that Stinney freely confessed to the double killings of Binnicker and Thames. No written confession was available to exhibit during the rushed trial. The prosecution called three other witnesses, all White men. Not one of them was cross examined by Plowden. What these three witness testified to is puzzling, given there were no witnesses to the daylight murders of the two girls. What could they testify to?

Young Stinney could not look around the packed courtroom and see a friend. He could not search out the faces of his relatives to send him a comforting smile. He was surrounded by a courtroom of White Alcolu citizens that wanted him found guilty for the crime he was accused of committing. His court appointed lawyer made it easy for the jury to return a guilty verdict.

Prior to the trial a mob of White vigilantes went to the jail where the teenager was being held, intent on lynching him without a trial. Unbeknownst to them, the police had secreted Stinney to another jail 40 miles away in Charleston. In the meanwhile, a speedy trial was in the works. An all-White jury of 12 males was quickly selected. The trial lasted all of two-and-a-half hours. An estimated 1,000 people crowded the small courtroom. It took the jury 10 minutes to find the Stinney guilty. Fourteen year old George Stinney, Jr. was sentenced to die in the electric chair. To date, he is the youngest person to be “legally” executed in the United States.

Author David Stout wrote in his book Carolina Skeletons, “After a lunch break the case was heard before Judge Stoll. Plowden did not cross-examine any of the prosecuting witnesses. His defense consisted of claiming that Stinney was too young by law to be held responsible for the crimes. In response, the prosecution presented Stinney's birth certificate stating that he was born on October 21, 1959, which made him 14 years and five months old. Under South Carolina law in 1944 an adult was anyone over the age of 14.”

Stout further wrote about the execution (he was not an eyewitness): “June 16, 1944. At 7:30 p.m., George Stinney, Jr. was fitted into the electric chair. It had been designed for grown men, not children. He was five feet, one inch tall and weighed ninety pounds. The guards had a hard time strapping him into the seat. The mask over his face did not fit properly. When the switch was thrown, the force of the electricity jerked the too-large mask from his face and for the final four minutes of his life, spectators in the gallery had a full view of Stinney's horrified face as he was executed.

"Stinney's sister, Katherine Stinney Robinson, was interviewed on the fiftieth anniversary of her brother's execution and said, 'He was like my idol, you know. He was very smart in school, very artistic. He could draw all kinds of things. We had a good family. Small house, but there was a lot of love. It took my mother a long time to get over it. And maybe she never got over it,'” Stout wrote.

Charles Stinney, George's brother, said when their mother saw her son after the execution, she said, "They didn't have to burn him up like that." Stinney was buried in an unmarked grave in South Carolina. Charles said he have never gone back to visit the grave site.

Currently, there is an effort underway to clear Stinney’s name. Supporters of the effort want the state of South Carolina to confess and admit that officials executed the wrong person for the double killings. Charles Stinney said the NAACP attempted to get the execution stopped to no avail. They even called on President Franklin Roosevelt for help but they did not hear from him.

Today, Attorney Steve McKenzie is spearheading the effort to get justice for the 14-year-old boy. Upstate.com writes that McKenzie said, "As an attorney, it just kind of haunted me, just the way the judicial system worked to this boy's disadvantage or disfavor. It did not protect him." McKenzie is preparing whatever documentation is necessary to ask that the case  reopened.

Zerlina Maxwell of Grio, reported that McKenzie said Stinney was suspected simply because he said he saw the girls earlier in the day. "[Stinney] was a convenient target,” says McKenzie, but the challenge now is ”[h]ow do you exonerate somebody where there is absolutely no evidence one way or the other? There was only a coerced confession. The confession was never written. It was an oral confession testified to two White officers and told to an all White male jury.”