The Scholars Academy Magnet Sophomore Research Seminar is putting social justice into practice through an intensive research project on George Stinney, the youngest person in the 20th century to be executed. Stinney was charged with the first-degree murders of Betty Binnicker and Mary Thames in Alcolu, Clarendon County, South Carolina in 1944. With no physical evidence or eyewitnesses to the murders, an all white jury, and having his family run out of town while he was on trial, young Stinney was sentenced to the Columbia Penitentiary to be executed by electric chair after a confession, of which there were no written records, was given. In January, a motion was filed to reopen the case in hopes of exonerating Stinney.
The students have spent the semester constructing a webpage with resources surrounding the case and have started Twitter and Instagram pages to inform people on the case in hopes of seeing this exoneration come to fruition. On Wednesday, June 4, members of the Stinney extended family visited students to provide them with documents from the original 1944 trial, as well as relay stories of the family struggles and help provide insight into the needs of the movement today. The Scholars Academy Magnet Sophomore class hopes to make a difference. A rally for George Stinney will be held at the State House on Monday, June 16th at 12:30 PM.
