George Stinney Jr was a 14-year-old African American boy convicted of murder as a result of a racially-biased and discriminatory trail and became one of the youngest people in the United States in the 20th century to be sentenced to death and to be executed. During the Jim Crow Law this boy who was only 5’1 be blamed to commit such an act, he was sentenced to death and executed in the death chamber of the Central Correctional Institute in Columbia, South Carolina. This was an immoral act of injustice and 70 years later he was exonerated for the charges. During the south in the 1940’s it was a widespread of racial discrimination and segregation they were treating people according to the color of their skin because it was legal to do so and …show more content…
According to the officers Stinney had confessed to the murders, but they were never no confession document signed by him stating that he had made the confession. They said there was two confessions made by Stinney which appeared to have been coerced and there was no physical evidence nor was there was no witnesses in this case. During his trial his family and the NAACP tried to appeal clemency given the age of George but was denied the appeal and his family was only allowed to see him once before he was executed. His lawyer did little to defend him not even using his sisters as a witness to testify that their brother was home with them nor the reverend who found the girl’s body. He believed that it could of not have been George due to his size at the crime scene there wasn’t any blood at the because he believed that the girls were killed elsewhere and then moved to the designated area. The prosecutors weren’t even crossed examined the judicial process leading to his execution has been extensively criticized, he was given a speedy trial not a fair one, his rights were violated by the 6th amendment and he had no effective defense. Within 83 days his arrest, confession, trial, conviction, and execution all
In September 1983, an 11 year old female by the name of Sabrina Buie was found dead in a soybean field in Robeson County. She was beaten very bad, She was also raped and suffocated. As days passed , police got noticed that two teenagers could be a prime suspect for the crime. Their names were Henry Lee McCollum age 19, and Leon Brown, who are 15. They also were step brothers.
The court cases were rushed through and they were all sentenced to death. The boys lawyers barely defended them and merely showed up. This violated the due process of law (14th
In Live Oak, Florida, the year of 1952, an African American woman named Ruby McCollum was arrested and convicted for killing a white doctor named C. Leroy Adams. During this point in time, racism was even more alive than it is today. It was said that McCollum was lucky to have even gotten a trial at all instead of just being lynched. Her trial is very interesting to me because she stood up against people that wanted to see her be put in prison for the rest of her life. To be specific, none of the jury were female, and all of them were white, some of whom were patients of Dr. Adams.
James Earl Ray arguably became one of the most infamous murderers of the 20th century when he murdered Dr. Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, TN. On March 10, 1969, Ray pleads guilty to murder and receives a 99 year sentence, cementing his name in history. The murder of Dr. King sparked riots and protests across the nation, and some argue set back the civil rights movement with the loss of one of the movement’s most notable figures. Three days after the guilty plea, Ray wrote the judge for a new trial professing his innocence (PBS, 2010). The years following and several lawyers later, Ray never got another day in court, but maintained his innocence.
After the trials of the four murderers had been held, people started to realize that they were treating African Americans horribly. Much time had passed before people realized they needed to do something about this racial prejudice. About a year later, the Civil Rights Act was passed by congress stating that it “ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin…” (History.com) The act helped vanquish segregation in cities forever, yet it still did not fully do the job. The assassination of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. followed in years after the law was made and showed that people still broke the rules and people still treated African-Americans with rotten
Kennedy Johnson Mr. Vernon U.S.History:Final 3 June 2015 Commemorating Lillie Belle Allen There were tensions between whites and blacks throughout the country in the 1960’s. There were race riots in many states; but it was uncommon for there to be race riots in a city as little as York, Pa. In 1969, a black, unarmed woman named Lillie Belle Allen got shot in her chest by white gang members while coming home from shopping with her sister. It took 32 years before she and her family received justice and the culprits that shot her received their charges; that is why her death should be commemorated. Tensions between whites and blacks increased in the 1960’s.
Racism and Segregation in the South During the 1930’s, the Great Depression caused poverty throughout the United States. People all over the country went to extreme measures to earn money and survive. Several people hopped on trains illegally to travel and try to start new lives for themselves. Some women resorted to prostitution around these hobo camps to earn their living. Two such women were Ruby Bates and Victoria Price.
Georgie Milton did something not many people have the guts to do, he took the life of his best friend to save him from the torture that awaited him, but, he took the life of another man and he took this life with the intention of murder. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, there is no difference between euthanasia and murder; and to this indictment, George Milton has pleaded not guilty. If I am to prove him otherwise, you must find him so. Lennie Small has been described to us as a caring giant. He had no bad intentions; and it is fair to say that our witnesses have provided us with sufficient evidence to support my argument.
Lastly, the outcomes of both Robinson’s and Stinney’s convictions would be very different in a modern day courtroom due to the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the 14th Amendment. In 2005 the Supreme Court ruled that it was cruel and unusual punishment to execute someone convicted of murder that was under the age of eighteen (Juveniles and the death penalty). Although inmates do not have the same constitutional rights as free citizens, this same clause would have applied to Tom Robinson and his rights while in jail (Prisoner Rights). While modern day laws allow the shooting of a fleeing unarmed inmate, there are many stipulations to this law. Today’s officers would have to prove that there was an immediate threat to do so.
In the 1930s, racism was a major problem in Chicago for the African American citizens in all societies. There was an area called the Black Belt, which is where almost all of the blacks lived. One of the exceptions was Archibald Motley. He was a painter who lived in a white community, which was extremely rare. Also in the 1930s of Chicago there were many racial problems with homicides.
African-American in the late 1800s and early in the 1900s were socially, politically and economically restricted from participating in the Southern state. Although, slaves were abolished in the 1865, even though they were free and escape the brutality in the South, their rights of human being were still taking away from them. They were given little right such as owning property in specific area. African-American could sue, be sued and testify in court only involving other African-Americans. They were given the right to get marry, however, they could not interact or have an relationship outside of race.
“The Great Depression was a time of devastation and uncertainty. After the stock market crashed in October 1929, millions of Americans lost their jobs and homes” this article and quote helped Harper Lee to write the famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird (McCabe 12). The central idea of this paper will focus on historical influences in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird for example, The Great Depression because it was taken place in this time period. All the historical influences covered in this paper will be the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and lastly the Scottsboro trials. One of the influences in Harper Lee’s book To Kill a Mockingbird is The Jim Crow laws.
He had so much life to live until it was taken away from the cruel punishment of death penalty some people say he deserved it. That is an example of racial bias a 14 year old african american teen killed by death penalty due to a murder he committed of two young caucasianfemales but George was only 14. Supreme court says if your 15 and under you shouldn’t receive a death penalty because you are not seen as an adult unless your 18 or older 15 and under your still seen as a juvenile. Then why did George stinney get executed ? Is it far that kids have been getting killed by death penalty due to their actions.
In the South of the United States in the 1930´s, the justice system was very unfair towards colored people. Colored people that were sent to court could not receive a fair trial because of the prejudice and racism from the jury. This happened all the time, especially in Maycomb Alabama. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, a colored man named Tom Robinson was convicted of assaulting a white woman just because of the color of his skin. Tom Robinson should have been found not guilty for many reasons.
Could you ever possibly imagine a time where you couldn’t use the same bathroom as some of your classmates because the had a different skin color? This time in history was known as the Civil Rights Movement, a movement from 1954-1954, in which people fought against racism. Although the Civil Rights Movement mainly affected African Americans, but involved all of American society. Because most racism against ancient African Americans took place in southern United States, civil rights was extremely important to African Americans who lived in the south. Racism was so widely spread it even found its way into professional sports.