In 1944, 14-year-old George Stinney Jr., a Black child, was executed in South Carolina.
Stinney was accused kf murdering two white girls, Betty June Binnicker, 11, and Mary Emma Thames, 7.
He was interrogated without his parents or a lawyer.
Police claimed he confessed, but no written confession was produced.
His trial lasted just hours.
An all-white jury deliberated for barely 10 minutes before sentencing him to death by electric chair.
His sister, who maintained that she was with him that day, was never called to give an alibi.
On June 16, 1944, George was executed.
He weighed just about 90 pounds.
He was the youngest person executed in the United States during the 20th century.
Seventy years later, in 2014, a judge vacated his conviction, finding that he had been denied a fair trial and that his confession was most likely coerced.
A 14-year-old child was denied justice, condemned by a segregated legal system and killed by the state β simply because he was black.
And the most heartbreaking part? Reports describe thousands of white spectators celebrating his execution.
A 14-year old child ! π