In 1944, a 14 yr old child was put to death by electric chair, right now

[Ninga]

today, in SC a hearing is taking place to only determine if he was given "a fair trial."

http://www.wltx.com/news/article/261899/2/George-Stinney-Jr-New-Trial-Hearing-Underway-

I can't stop weeping.

[Arugula Latte]

1. What a country.

And we're still utterly barbaric. It's okay for the state to murder mentally challenged people, according to the Supremes.

[Ninga]

2. Yes, in many ways this country is worse than in 1944. Nt

[frazzled]

7. Not in terms of executions

I quickly counted some 120 executions in 1944 (sadly, a disproportionate number of black males; I didn't count, but more than half):
http://deathpenaltyusa.org/usa1/date/1944.htm

By contrast, in 2013, there were 39 (still 39 too many, but interestingly only 7 of them black, which at least is somewhat more in proportion to the demographics of the country):
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/execution-list-2013
http://deathpenaltyusa.org/usa/date/2013.htm

In modern times, since the 1970s, the number of executions in this country spiked in the mid to late 1990s, but it's going back down. An increasing number of states have banned the death penalty, and I hope more do—I hope ALL do so. See graph at http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions-year

Such a sad story for this young boy. No amount of retrying of the case will bring him back. Unfortunately, it's a story that has been repeated many times.

[RC]

3. And sometimes to do it right in the streets by those that serve and protect.

Thereby, cutting out the expense of the courts and jails.

[Ninga]

4. Which means to me that all who have perished at the hands of injustice, did so in

vain, only to move aside for the new injustice, the vigilante movement.

[ellie]

8. I say that all the time,

but usually add, "What a fucking country this is."

[struggle4progress]

5. George Stinney, Jr.'s Sister: My Brother Did Not Do It

Dakarai Turner
7:46 AM, Jan 21, 2014
... Ruffner said she knows her brother is innocent because she never left his side after the girls, Mary Emma Thames, 7, and Betty June Binnicker, 11, asked them where they could find flowers as they tended to a family cow near a set of railroad tracks near their home ... Records show a state witness testifying to a confession Stinney, Jr. made, though no record of that confession has surfaced ... "There's an individual who is the foreman of the jury on the coroner's inquest," said Matt Burgess, an attorney at the law firm of Coffey, Chandler and McKenzie, the attorneys who will make their case Tuesday morning. "He'd signed as a witness, also, on the indictment forms. He was a witness of the grand jury" ... After her brother's arrest, Ruffner said the family was run out of town so they moved to Sumter ...
http://www.wltx.com/news/article/261829/2/George-Stinney-Jrs-Sister-My-Brother-Did-Not-Do-It

Executed 14-year-old George Stinney should be retried in girls' murders, lawyers argue
Mercury News wire services
Posted: 01/21/2014 08:55:51 AM PST
Updated: 01/21/2014 09:00:56 AM PST
... Nearly all the evidence, including a confession that was central to the case against Stinney, has disappeared, along with the transcript of the trial. Lawyers working on behalf of Stinney's family have gathered new evidence, including sworn statements from his relatives accounting for his whereabouts the day the girls were killed and from a pathologist disputing the autopsy findings ...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=post&forum=1002&pid=4367782

Prosecutor: New trial not needed for George Stinney, 14, executed in 1944
By JEFFREY COLLINS
The Associated PressJanuary 21, 2014
... The novel decision of whether to give someone executed a new trial is in the hands of Circuit Judge Carmen Mullen. She said her task isn't deciding whether Stinney is guilty or innocent, but whether he got a fair trial at the time. “What can I do? What can I rectify?” Mullen said at the beginning of the hearing. “And even if we did retry, Mr. Stinney, what would be the result? Again, none of us have the power to bring that 14-year-old child back” ... “No one here can justify a 14-year-old child being charged, tried, convicted and executed in some 80 days,” she said ...
http://www.thestate.com/2014/01/21/3218930/new-trial-sought-in-case-of-george.html

[JI7]

6. it's because he was black

[hfojvt]

9. did he kill those two girls, ages 7 and 11?

If he did, then why would I weep about the fairness of his trial?

Like I want to make sure he had every opportunity to avoid the consequences for what he did?

But the judge, who seems almost giddy, she cannot stop smiling, says that his guilt or innocence do not matter. Like it's okay to put an innocent person to death as long as they get a "fair trial" and it's bad to put a guilty person to death without a "fair trial."

That is a strange way to think. Like the procedure matters more than the truth.

If the truth doesn't matter then why not just flip a coin and let God decide? If he's guilty then God will make the coin end up heads, and heads will roll.

Be a whole lot simpler procedure that way.

[Ninga]

10. I sincerely hope you take some time to read about how there were no adults, lawyers,

or guardians during his interrogation. His "confession" is gone, lost, not in the file. No evidence was presented, no witnesses, no one was questioned, he was not put on the stand.

That is why I weep.