This article was originally published on luxandlush.com and has been republished here with permission.
History is filled with horrific moments that have resulted from bad judgment and warped understanding of social norms. In 1944, South Carolina reached a new low when they put George Stinney Jr. to death by the electric chair. At the tender age of 14-years-old, George was the youngest American to ever be executed by the state.
It was the midst of the Jim Crow era and racial tensions were high. The fact that George Stinney Jr. was given the death penalty based on a paper-thin case and after a short 10-minute deliberation is shocking enough on its own. The lack of evidence is one of the reasons that the teen was eventually exonerated – 70 years after being put to death.
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