21. George Stinney was the youngest person ever legally executed in the United States
In 1944, over a period of just three months, George Stinney, a fourteen-year-old boy, was arrested, tried, convicted, and executed in the state of South Carolina. Stinney, who was black, was convicted of the murder of two white girls. His trial, before an all-white jury, lasted but one day. After the boy was arrested, the evidence against him consisted of his being seen in the company of the girls before they were killed, he was not allowed to be visited by his parents, denied immediate legal counsel, and was interrogated by police officers who convinced him to confess. His confession was later used to convict him, unimpeached by his attorneys.
Seven decades later the conviction was thrown out by another South Carolina judge, who did not exonerate Stinney, but instead condemned the actions of the system which had killed him. Still, the judge pointed out that the issue of guilt or innocence was not decided. Transcripts of Stinney’s original trial have disappeared if they ever existed at all. In overturning the conviction of George Stinney the system was found lacking, and the execution of a fourteen-year-old child was determined to be “cruel and unusual punishment”. But the question of Stinney’s guilt was not addressed, other than the judge commenting that he “may well have committed this crime”.