Judge throws out teen’s murder conviction 70 years after his execution

[MachineGhost]

Sad, just sad...

When George Stinney Jr. was executed for the killings of two white girls in 1944, he was so small that the straps of South Carolina’s electric chair didn’t fit him properly, and he had to sit on a book for his electrocution.

Stinney was just 14 years old at the time and became the youngest person put to death in the United States in the 20th century. But Wednesday, 70 years after the fact, Circuit Judge Carmen Mullen tossed out his conviction, which was reached after a trial that didn’t even last a full day and was never appealed. As the Associated Press noted, it took Mullen “nearly four times as long to issue her ruling as it took in 1944 to go from arrest to execution.”?

“I can think of no greater injustice,”? Mullen wrote in her 29-page order, the AP reported.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post ... tional_pop

[Libertarian666]

That's an "excellent" example of why I'm against the death penalty... other than as applied by the intended victim at the point of the attempt.

[Mountaineer]

I do wonder what the facts related to the conviction were .... almost as I wonder what the facts were that led to the judge overthrowing the conviction.  Seems rather "light" on anything to do with evidence and long on emotional heartstring tugging in the name of political correctness by today's standards.

I am ticked because two of my ancestors were "forcefully abducted" from Scotland a couple of hundred years ago.  I wonder if it is too late to have the abductors convicted?  Probably so since they were of the wrong color.

... Mountaineer

[Ad Orientem]

Posthumous pardons are a legal fiction. One can no more pardon the dead than convict them. This is just an effort to make people feel better, like we have made right a terrible injustice. But nothing of the kind has happened. This is why it is very important that we exercise great care when judging others. Some wrongs just can't be made right.

[MachineGhost]

I do wonder what the facts related to the conviction were .... almost as I wonder what the facts were that led to the judge overthrowing the conviction.  Seems rather "light" on anything to do with evidence and long on emotional heartstring tugging in the name of political correctness by today's standards.

The facts were basically there were no facts other than sheer racism.  But I think the point of overturning such blantant abuses of the justice system is to clear the air and restore a bit of faith in the system.  That fact that we actually do this speaks volumes about how much we respect the rule of law as applied equally to everyone, regardless of skin color.  Europe does not even remotely have the same tradition.