George Stinney —wiki—motion filed to reopen 1944 S.CAROLINA
On October 25, 2013, Steve McKenzie, Ray Chandler and Matt Burgess of Coffey, Chandler & McKenzie, P.A., filed a Motion for New Trial Pursuant to South Carolina Rule of Criminal Procedure 29(b). They are being joined in their efforts in seeking justice some 70 years later by Ray Lenard Brown of Pleroma Entertainment and James E. Moon, General Counsel for Pleroma.
South Carolina lawyers Steve McKenzie, Ray Chandler and Matt Burgess are supporting George Frierson in an attempt to obtain a posthumous pardon, if not a complete, judicial exoneration, for Stinney. Frierson is a researcher from Alcolu who came across the case in 2005 while doing black historical research. McKenzie in an interview in 2011 said he has no doubt this case was an injustice. He said that the lack of preserved evidence made clearing Stinney’s name difficult, but he hoped that the affidavits of three new witnesses, one of which could provide an alibi, would be enough to re-open the case.
If we can get the case re-opened, we can go to the judge and say, ‘There wasn’t any reason to convict this child. There was no evidence to present to the jury. There was no transcript. This case needs to be re-opened. This is an injustice that needs to be righted.’ I’m pretty optimistic that if we can get the witnesses we need to come forward, we will be successful in court. We hopefully have a witness that’s going to say — that’s non-family, non-relative witness — who is going to be able to tie all this in and say that they were basically an alibi witness. They were there with Mr. Stinney and this did not occur.
—Steve McKenzie
George Frierson stated in interviews that “…there has been a person that has been named as being the culprit, who is now deceased. And it was said by the family that there was a deathbed confession.” Frierson said that the rumored culprit came from a well-known, prominent white family. A member, or members of that family, had served on the initial coroner’s inquest jury which had recommended that Stinney be prosecuted.[6]
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