SC's execution of 14-year-old riled people in 1944

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Dec 27, 11:35 AM EST
SC's execution of 14-year-old riled people in 1944
By JEFFREY COLLINS

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- Leaving a judge to decide whether to throw out the conviction of a 14-year-old boy executed in South Carolina in 1944 reminds supporters of George Stinney of how the teen's fate was also in one man's hands nearly 70 years ago.

Gov. Olin Johnston could have commuted Stinney's death sentence to life in prison if he wanted. He had 54 days between the time the black teen was convicted of killing two white girls in the tiny mill town of Alcolu in Clarendon County and his march to the electric chair with a Bible in his arm.

But Johnston was running for U.S. Senate in 1944, facing a challenger who took a much harder line on segregation. He refused clemency for Stinney, saying he trusted the police, prosecutor and jury. At 14, Stinney was the youngest person executed in this country in the past 100 years, according to statistics gathered by the Death Penalty Information Center.

Stinney's conviction is being challenged by a lawsuit filed by supporters asking for a new trial, a move unprecedented in South Carolina for someone already put to death. A hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 21.

[brett_jv]

1. I am of the firm opinion that whatever is the youngest age at which we execute a person for murder

It should automatically become the age (in all States) at which kids:

1) May begin writing their own notes at school, and dropping out if they so choose, and
2) May join the Military, and
3) May start working full-time, and
4) May get a drivers license, and
5) May VOTE in all elections, and
5) Just to get REALLY controversial ... may consent to sexual activity w/whomever they choose.

AFAIC, at any given age, you're either a child, with all attendant ramifications (including NOT being tried as an adult) or you're an adult, with all of IT'S attendant ramifications.

The fact that we consider 14 year old's basically 'babies' with practically NONE of the rights and responsibilities of adults for all purposes ASIDE from the possibility of being put to death (or facing life) for a crime they commit ... is horrifically wrong-minded and hypocritical.

I understand we've not done this to anyone else THIS young since then, but it could STILL HAPPEN in many states in this Union even today. AFAIC, that's not right. As it stands, 18 is the age you become an adult, and thus, you should NOT be eligible to be put to death (or get life) for crimes committed before your 18th birthday. But if we're going to violate that principle, then all of the above should universally apply as well.

I think that the youngest age of execution in this country = the age at which people become legal 'adults', by federal mandate. Maybe that will get some of these backwards states to 'think twice' about pulling crap like what happened in 1944 in SC.