Carolina skeletons À espera de um milagre

A execução de George Stinney Jr é um dos capítulos mais tristes e cruéis da história dos Estados Unidos.

No ano de 1944, ele foi sentenciado à morte na cadeira elétrica no estado da Carolina do Sul. George tinha apenas 14 anos, foi julgado em pouco mais de 2 horas e o veredicto foi dado em 10 minutos.

A cisma racial era muito forte na época e ser negro podia ser o fiel da balança para alguém ser considerado criminoso, o que possivelmente aconteceu, pois todas as pessoas do juri eram brancas.

70 anos depois, a execução de George Stinney Jr foi considerada errada e a mesma corte que o sentenciou à morte, reconheceu sua inocência em 2014.

A acusação do crime e execução de George Stinney

George era descendente de africanos e foi acusado do assassinato de duas meninas brancas de 11 e 7 anos. Betty e Mary foram encontradas mortes próximas da casa da família do garoto.

George era de Alcolu, uma pequena cidade do condado de Clarendon, na Carolina do Sul e ser negro naquela região já era muito sofrido por si só.

Para piorar a situação, os pais dele foram deixados de lado durante o julgamento, sendo ameaçados e ordenados para que deixassem a cidade para que não sobrasse para eles.

George ficou 81 dias preso numa cela a 80 quilômetros de sua cidade natal, tendo nunca mais visto seus pais até sua morte.

Cena do filme “Carolina Skeletons”, de 1991

Para a execução, foram colocados livros para o garoto sentar em cima e atingir a altura necessária para usar o capacete com eletrodos que desferiu a carga de 5.380 volts em seu corpo.

A incansável luta de seus pais

Apesar de terem sido obrigados a sair da cidade para não serem também vítimas da injustiça praticada contra George, seus pais não deixaram de lutar pela busca da verdade.

Um álibi fortíssimo foi evidenciado por sua irmã, Amie, que em 2014 afirmou que estava com seu irmão vendo uma vaca pastar quando viu as meninas que mais tarde seriam assassinadas passando de bicicleta.

O julgamento de George beirou o absurdo, a família não teve direito a bons advogados e o que estava lá para defendê-lo, não o fez com muita vontade, afirmando apenas que o garoto era muito jovem para ser executado ao invés de apresentar testemunhas e provas de que ele não tinha feito nada.

O advogado poderia ter recorrido, mas não o fez, deixando o garoto à mercê da justiça, que determinou a execução de  2 meses depois, no dia 16 de junho de 1944.

Após a sentença, o advogado não recorreu e, menos de dois meses depois, em 16 de junho de 1944, foi determinada a execução de George Stinney Jr.

Quase 70 anos depois o advogado Steve McKenzie reabriu o caso, afirmando que não houve justiça e que George foi um inocente assassinado.

“Além do fato óbvio de que não houve um julgamento justo neste caso, não há provas, não há confissões escritas, mas apenas aquelas feitas na frente de policiais brancos. Não há testemunhas, não há transcrições do julgamento muito breve, nada que indique que o menino era culpado”.

O juiz Mullen decidiu ir a fundo no caso, ouvindo testemunhas, re-analisando os resultados da autópsia e lendo os depoimentos do garoto, decidindo por anular a sentença.

O filme “À Espera de um Milagre” foi uma homenagem a ele.

A justiça terrena tardou a ponto de prejudicar a vida de vários inocentes.

O post A triste e cruel história da execução de George Stinney Jr apareceu primeiro em O Macho Alpha.

Top reviews from the United States

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Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2017

In June, 1944, in one of the worst miscarriages of justice in American history, a black, 14-year-old South Carolina boy named George Stinney was convicted of the brutal murder of two young white girls and executed less than two months later, becoming the youngest person legally executed in the 20th century. The primary evidence against Stinney was a questionable confession, and the conviction was eventually vacated in 2014. Years before that, however, author David Stout used the Stinney case as the basis for his 1988 novel, “Carolina Skeletons,” an often illuminating novel that presents an eye-opening portrait of the changing nature of race relations in the south.

The book is divided into two roughly equal halves. The first covers the arrest, trial, and execution of the fictional Linus Bragg (the Stinney stand-in). The author makes it clear that Bragg wasn’t guilty. However, although the local sheriff, Hiram Stoker, makes sure that Bragg is treated decently and isn’t lynched, he does use his lawman training to coerce a confession from the boy and watches the farce of a trial result in a conviction within ten minutes. The second half of the book takes place in 1988 as Bragg’s nephew James Willop, a bi-racial newspaper reporter who can pass for white, goes back to his hometown to look into the case. By now, Stoker is in a nursing home, and his son, Junior Stoker, is with the state police. What is seemingly the coldest of cold cases heats up when a couple of the people involved in the initial investigation die in mysterious “accidents.”

“Carolina Skeletons” is written in the form of a mystery (it won the Edgar Award for Best First Mystery of the year), with a couple of chapters late in the book told from the point of view of the actual killer. Most people, though, won’t have too much trouble figuring out who the killer is. However, what is most interesting about the book isn’t the solution to the crime, or even the two investigations some 40 years apart, but, rather, what the case and the investigations have to say about race relations in that part of South Carolina over the years. In that regard, there’s a third perspective to keep in mind, that of the reader in 2017, an additional 30 years after the events in the second half of the book.

What stands out the most about the early scenes in “Carolina Skeletons” is the carefully delineated social structure of the time between blacks and whites that was generally accepted. There is relatively little malicious racial mistreatment depicted, but the casual way in which the n-word is bandied about and the firm beliefs in stereotypes shows just how unequal the segregated South was at the time. Against this backdrop, Sheriff Stoker comes across as the most fascinatingly complex character in the book, a man determined to do right by everyone, at least according to the standards of the time. He’s actually a more compelling character than the book’s ostensible hero, Willop. By contrast, the later scenes show how much in some respects and how little in others the racial attitudes in the South changed in the intervening years. Modern-day readers will have fun comparing the world of 1988 to today as well (Willop has to do all his research the old-fashioned way, by combing through old newspaper clippings and courthouse records).

Author Stout, who is a veteran journalist, has an ear for dialogue and accents and creates some vividly detailed descriptions of life in 1944 in rural South Carolina. He isn’t as effective with either the mystery or thriller elements in the 1988 portions of the story or at the drama about the personal events going on in Willop's life. However, the scenes of everyday life in 1988 he establishes are equally compelling. What Stout excels at is getting inside the heads of his characters and make their thought processes seem very realistic. By following their thought processes, Stout is able to show how the various characters arrive at both right and wrong decisions over the course of the book. Stout certainly doesn’t condone the racial practices and attitudes on display in the book, but he doesn’t blindly condemn them either. Instead, he is far more interested in using the backdrop of the actual case to show how life was in 1944 and 1988, good and bad. “Carolina Skeletons” paints a vivid picture of a not-too-distant part of our past that is seldom portrayed in quite this manner. These skeletons will be a welcome addition to any reader’s closet.

Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2018

This book is a fictionalized account of the story of George Stinney Jr. George Stinney Jr. was a 14 year old African American boy that was executed by the state of South Carolina for the murder of two white girls (11-year-old Betty June Binnicker and 7-year-old Mary Emma Thames) in 1944. Carolina Skeletons is the author’s version of how the murders may have happened and how George Stinney Jr., a 95 pound 14 year old, may have been unfairly blamed for murdering the two girls. The names of all the characters are all made up so that the executed boy’s name is Linus Braggs and the two murdered girls were Cindy Lou Ellerby and Sue Ellen Clark.

The book is divided into two main parts: part one deals with 1944—the murders up to Linus Braggs’ execution—and part two deals with 1988—the reinvestigation.

Both parts are interesting for different reasons. Part one is interesting because you have this very odd and atypical murder. Part two is interesting because it unfolds like a well written murder mystery. Everything that was ignored, shunned, or swept under the rug slowly becomes revealed with the tenacious pursuit of an “outsider”. I appreciated the suspense and the slow focusing of the story. What started as a hazy picture became sharper as the book went on. David Stout may have been unburying Carolina skeletons but it could have easily been the skeletons of any Southern town.

Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2017

A letter in his mother's desk prompts a man who just lost his job, as a large newspaper closed it's doors to take trip. The letter asks him to find the truth about a forty year old double homicide. A fourteen year old negro boy went to the electric chair for the murder of two young white girls. In the first part of the book the you feel the loneliness of the boy as he faces the quick trial after he signed a confession. His family fled north to avoid probable retribution.
While searching forty year old archives for clues two men become victims of possible homicide in separate incidents. As he gets closer to the truth he feels that his pass for white features no longer protect him. Paranoia sets in when he decides to confront a man who he believes to have actually committed the double homicide.
I found myself staying up late to finish this fast paced book. I would recommend the book to any one interested in the history of black and white relations in the south during WWII.

Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2021

The subject matter is a sad look back at our justice system. Unfortunately, this still goes on today :-(

Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2020

Well written story with believable characters and background historical angels to make it seem this could well have happened. Good read.

Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2018

I'm still reading it and find it interesting. I understand it's based on a true story about a teenager who was used, badly treated, found guilty and did not have a fair trial or a good lawyer and then executed in the electric chair and was all alone, his family had to leave town.

Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2020

The fact that this was based on a true story is rather chilling. The characters were very well developed. The tale absorbing from beginning to end.

Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2018

There were a lot of parts of this book that dragged but the ending redeemed it. The most tragic art is of course that it's based on a true story.

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