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Chapter 1
Alcolu is a small town off Route 521 in Clarendon County,
South Carolina, about 50 miles east of Columbia. The first
African-American woman to play tennis at Wimbledon, Althea
Gibson, was born here. So was Peggy Parish, famous author of
children's books. Five governors of South Carolina were also
born and raised here (http//www.clarendoncounty.com). Forest
products are a major output of the region, along with tobacco,
cotton and corn. Cucumbers are grown in abundance in Clarendon
County. It is primarily an agricultural area that features
only one small city: Manning, whose population in 1944 was
less than 3,000. Essentially, the county was, and still is, a
quiet farming community whose routine was rarely, if ever,
interrupted by such a climatic event as child murder
 On the sunny afternoon of
March 24, 1944, Betty June Binnicker, age 11, and her friend ,
Mary Emma Thames, age 8, had just left their homes to pick
flowers. They were alternately walking and riding Betty's
bicycle along the railroad tracks that ran through Alcolu. The
girls often played in this area on the opposite side of the
town. By any measure, it was a beautiful spring day: the trees
just beginning to bud, the first flowers of the season
blooming among the tall grass along the tracks. As they ran
and skipped their way through the grass, they saw a young
black man along the same path. He also lived in this small
lumber-producing town and both girls knew him. Everyone knew
everyone else in Alcolu, it was that kind of place. However,
within minutes, both girls lay dead on the ground, their
skulls brutally bashed in by a huge railroad spike. Their
bodies were dragged through the grass and dumped into a small
ravine. Immediately after the murders, the killer hid the
bloody weapon in the bushes and began the leisurely walk home.
He seemed unconcerned and it is doubtful that he truly
understood the repercussions of what he had done.
Chapter Two
The killer of these children was a child himself. His name was
George Junius Stinney Jr., 14 years old, the illiterate son of
a local mill worker. And incredibly, in less than 90 days,
George would meet death himself, tears streaming down his
face, strapped to the electric chair inside the bleak walls of
the Central Correctional Institution in Columbia[1]. But the public would barely
notice his death. For in June 1944, the country had its eyes
fixed firmly upon the beaches of Normandy, where a million
American sons were locked in the desperate battles of D-Day
while the fate of a world hung in the balance. These were hard
times in America. The daily newspapers were filled with
graphic stories of killing and destruction on a scale that can
scarcely be imagined today. No one had time or
compassion for a black teenage killer of little white girls.
Nevertheless, history would be made at the Central
Correctional Institution on June 16, 1944. For on that day,
George Junius Stinney Jr., age 14 and 7 months, would become
the youngest person to be legally executed in the United
States during the 20th century.
The history of juvenile execution in America reads like a
novel with no plot: it seems to have no sense of purpose or
destination. Since the early 17th century, 356 juvenile
offenders have been executed in the United States (Grossfield,
p. 4). USA Today reports: "the first known execution of a
juvenile on these shores was in 1642: Thomas Graungery, 16, of
Plymouth Colony, Mass. was hanged for bestiality"
(Edmonds, p. 11). Some executions become appalling to us when
we consider the age of some of these defendants. Contrary to
what is generally believed, however, capital punishment in
colonial America was a controversial issue. Although it was
common to hang offenders in England for crimes like burglary,
robbery and theft-related offences, this was rare in America
(Friedman, p. 42). Lawrence Friedman writes in Crime and
Punishment in American History: "All things
considered, the colonies used the death penalty pretty
sparingly" (p. 42).
And it must be said that any interpretation of past executions
from the 18th and 19th century has to be viewed within the
time frame they occurred. For it seems unrealistic to apply
today's standards, values and beliefs to a society that
existed hundreds of years ago which can have no valid
comparison to today's world from a social and legal
perspective[2]. During colonial times the age of the
defendants was often not considered in certain crimes. For
example, in the State of New York, two young girls identified
only as "Bett" age 12, a slave belonging to Phillip
van Rensselear and "Dean", age 14, a slave belonging
to a Volkert Douw were executed on March 14, 1794. They were
accused and convicted of starting a fire that burned down a
large portion of the City of Albany on November 17, 1793
(Reynolds, pg. 384). It is difficult to identify the
youngest person legally executed in American history, but it
surely may be a Cherokee Indian who was hanged for murder in
1885. He was ten years old (Grossfield, p. 4). In modern
times, there have been relatively few juvenile executions
although 70 juvenile offenders presently sit on death row in
America. In 1988 a ruling in the Supreme Court "prohibits
the death penalty for juvenile offenders whose crimes were
committed before they were 16" (Grossfield, p. 5). Prior
to 1988, though it was not frequent, execution of children
younger than 16 was permitted.
[1] Such judicial
speed was common during that era. On February 15, 1933,
Giuseppe Zangara attempted to assassinate Franklin D.
Roosevelt in Miami. His shot missed, wounded Chicago Mayor
Anton Cermak who later died. On March 20, 1933 Zangara died in
the electric chair, indicted, convicted and executed in 35
days (Friedman, p. 320).
[2] In the 18th
century, convicts could be legally executed for crimes like
forgery, which was considered a much more serious offense than
it is today, cow stealing, robbery, rape and a wide assortment
of other crimes that would be simply unacceptable in modern
society.
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