[3] A re-examination of Stinney's case began in 2004, and several individuals and the Northeastern University School of Law sought a judicial review.

White and black neighborhoods were separated by railroad tracks, which was common for small Southern towns of the time.

March 14, 1937) were found in a ditch on the African-American side of Alcolu after the girls failed to return home the night before.

Binnicker and Thames both suffered severe blunt force trauma, resulting in penetration of both girls' skulls.

[9][10] According to a report by the medical examiner, these wounds had been "inflicted by a blunt instrument with a round head, about the size of a hammer."

[6] According to an article reported by the wire services on March 24, 1944, the sheriff announced the arrest of "George Junius" and stated that the boy had confessed and led officers to "a hidden piece of iron.

He then made a confession and told me where to find a piece of iron, about 15 inches where he said he put it in a ditch about six feet from the bicycle.

He had no support during his 81-day confinement and trial; he was detained at a jail in Columbia, 50 miles (80 km) from Alcolu, due to the risk of lynching.

[10] Although the Sixth Amendment guarantees legal counsel, this was not routinely observed until the United States Supreme Court's 1963 ruling in Gideon v. Wainwright that explicitly required representation through the course of criminal proceedings.

Stinney's court-appointed counsel was Charles Plowden, a tax commissioner campaigning for election to local office.

[7] Other than the testimony of the three police officers, at trial prosecutors called three witnesses: Reverend Francis Batson, who discovered the bodies of the two girls, and the two doctors who performed the post-mortem examination.

[7] Stinney's family, churches, and the NAACP appealed to Governor Olin D. Johnston for clemency, given the age of the boy.

Johnston wrote a response to one appeal for clemency, stating, "I have just talked with the officer who made the arrest in this case.

[29] When the lethal electricity was applied, the mask covering slipped off, revealing tears streaming down Stinney's face.

[28][30] This perception was later contested by Terri Evans, the niece of Mary Emma Thames' mother, Lula Mae.

"[16] Stinney was buried in an unmarked grave at the Calvary Baptist Church Cemetery in Lee County, South Carolina.

[31] In 2004, George Frierson, a local historian who grew up in Alcolu, started researching the case after reading a newspaper article about it.

[6] In addition, Ray Brown, attorney James Moon, and others contributed countless hours of research and review of historical documents, and found witnesses and evidence to assist in exonerating Stinney.

Among those who aided the case were the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (CRRJ) at the Northeastern University School of Law, which filed an amicus brief with the court in 2014.

McKenzie and Burgess, along with attorney Ray Chandler representing Stinney's family, filed a motion for a new trial on October 25, 2013.

The prosecutor relied, almost exclusively, on one piece of evidence to obtain a conviction in this capital case: the unrecorded, unsigned "confession" of a 14-year-old who was deprived of counsel and parental guidance, and whose defense lawyer shockingly failed to call exculpating witnesses or to preserve his right of appeal.

In addition, an affidavit was introduced from the "Reverend Francis Batson, who found the girls and pulled them from the water-filled ditch.

"[6] 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.

He is the son of Ernest A. Finney Jr., who was appointed as South Carolina's first African-American State Supreme Court justice since Reconstruction.

[35] Rather than approving a new trial, on December 16, 2014, circuit court Judge Carmen Mullen vacated Stinney's conviction.

She also found that the execution of a 14-year-old constituted "cruel and unusual punishment", and that his attorney "failed to call exculpating witnesses or to preserve his right of appeal.

Binnicker's niece claimed she and her family have extensively researched the case, and argues that "people who [just] read these articles in the newspaper don't know the truth.

Stinney's sister had previously recalled that after the two girls had asked about maypop flowers, a lumber truck drove down the road.

[43] In January 2022, South Carolina state representative Cezar McKnight introduced a bill named after Stinney, the George Stinney Fund, which would make the state of South Carolina pay $10 million to the families of the wrongfully executed if their conviction is posthumously overturned.