Summary Of George Stinney's 3 Hour Trial

If nothing else, young George Stinney, accused and convicted of killing two young girls and executed at age 14 by the state of South Carolina in 1944, is the poster child for why now an appeal is automatic in a Capital Murder case where execution is a possible sentence. Secondly, Stinney’s death makes a case for why the Supreme Court has ruled that children and the mentally deficient should not be subjected to the death penalty – they cannot adequately stand-up for themselves against law enforcement and the criminal justice system. Thirdly, Stinney’s 3 hour trial (and guilty verdict handed-down in only 10 minutes by an all-white jury) is an illustration of why juries should be made-up of a group of the defendant’s peers – and fourthly, the