Green Mile: The boy in the electric chair

While not a true story, the film, The Green Mile, highlighted flaws in the American legal system in racialized cases during the Great Depression era. George Stinney’s case, where an innocent 14-year-old was executed, shares eerie similarities with the storyline of John Coffey in The Green Mile.

George Stinney Jr, the youngest person to be sentenced to death in the United States, he was 14-years-old when he was executed in an electric chair. During his trial he always carried a Bible in his hands claiming his innocence.

He was accused of killing two white girls, 11 year old Betty and Mary of 7 whose bodies were found near the house the boy and his parents lived. At that time, all members of the jury were whites. The trial lasted 2 hours only and the sentence was dictated 10 minutes later.

The boy’s parents were not allowed in the court room, and subsequently expelled from that city after the trial. Before the execution George spent 81 days in prison without being able to see his parents, he was held in solitary 40 kilometers from his city.

He was electrocuted with 5380 volts to his head. 70 years later, new evidence in the court hearing in January 2014 included testimony by Stinney’s siblings that he was with them at the time of the murders. In addition, an affidavit was introduced from the Reverend Francis Batson, who found the girls and pulled them from the water-filled ditch.

In his statement he recalls there was not much blood in or around the ditch, suggesting that they may have been killed elsewhere and moved. Wilford “Johnny” Hunter, who was in prison with Stinney, “testified that the teenager told him he had been made to confess” and always maintained his innocence.

George Burke Sr., has been the subject of speculation as a possible suspect for the murders. Stinney’s sister recalled that her mother had once come home saying that Burke Sr. had made advances to her, and their father had told their mother to no longer go back.

Sonya Eaddy-Williamson, a Alcolu resident who grew close to Stinney’s sisters, investigated the case. According to her, George Burke Sr.’s grandson, Wayne Burke, told her that his grandmother had told him that his father had picked the girls up in his lumber truck by his grandmother’s house on the day of the girls’ murders.

In 2017, Wayne Burke denied saying this and said he remained convinced of Stinney’s guilt. Stinney’s sister had previously recalled that after the two girls had asked about maypop flowers, a lumber truck drove down the road. Lawyers for the Stinney family have stated that there had been rumors of a deathbed confession to the murders by a member of a prominent family, however, this has never been proven.