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In 1944, We Executed A 14-Year-Old Boy. Why Did It Take 70 Years For Us To Exonerate Him?

George Stinney is the youngest person ever executed in the U.S. And there was no evidence that he committed the crime he died for.Warning: Some graphic details of Stinney's death.

The year was 1944, the time of Jim Crow in the South.

Two young white girls were found murdered in South Carolina.

Their names were Betty June Binnicker and Mary Emma Thames. They were 11 and 8 years old, respectively. According to reports, they were riding their bikes and looking for flowers. They were found brutally beaten to death in a ditch.

George Stinney was a 14-year-old black boy. He became the #1 suspect in their murders.

After a search crew found the girls' bodies, a bystander reportedly told the police that Stinney had told him he was the last person to see the girls alive. So the police took Stinney in for interrogation. Five days later, the sheriff announced that Stinney had confessed to the girls' murders.

It took 10 minutes for an all-white male jury to convict Stinney of the murders and sentence him to death.

According to Al-Jazeera, "no physical evidence was presented." The Grio also notes that "there is no written record of his confession in the archives," while the Associated Press points out that there were no witnesses called by the defense.

On June 16, 1944, Stinney was executed in the electric chair.

He weighed only 95 pounds and measured just over five feet tall. He was so small, he had to sit on a phone book when he got into the chair.

In 2011, three South Carolina attorneys and an activist announced plans to reopen the case.

The attorneys were Steven McKenzie, Shaun Kent, and Ray Chandler. The community activist was George Frierson. They suspected Stinney's confession was coerced.

Betty June's niece said that she didn't want the case reopened.

She told NBC News:

"We always knew that our aunt was murdered, and we always knew that it was George Stinney Jr. My grandparents, to begin with, never recovered. That was their baby daughter."

Still, attorneys went ahead, given the new evidence they had found.

In January 2014, the attorneys presented their argument for reopening the case.

Here is the evidence that pointed to Stinney's innocence:

  1. In 1944, South Carolina Gov. Olin Johnston wrote a letter stating that Stinney killed 8-year-old Mary Emma first, then killed and raped Betty June. But a recent autopsy report indicated there was no evidence that Betty June was sexually assaulted.
  2. Stinney's sister testified that she had been with Stinney on the day the girls were murdered.
  3. A child psychiatrist testified that Stinney's confession had likely been coerced and unreliable.

On Dec. 17, 2014, South Carolina judge Carmen Mullins exonerated George Stinney of his murder conviction.

Mullins said that during Stinney's trial, there appeared to have been "fundamental, Constitutional violations of due process."

She also said in her ruling:

"Given the particularized circumstances of Stinney's case, I find by a preponderance of the evidence standard, that a violation of the Defendant's procedural due process rights tainted his prosecution."

In other words: After 70 years, Stinney's name is finally cleared.

Hear this brilliant poet tell the sad, awful story of George Stinney.

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FACT-CHECK TIME!

Our fact-checkers determined that this slam poet's retelling of Stinney's account is on-point and accurate, except for two minor details:

  • The poet says one of the victims' names was "Betty Jane," but it was Betty June.
  • The poet refers to Stinney's court-appointed lawyer as "Mr. Plowcher," but it was Mr. (Charles) Plowden.
Conservation

A juice company dumped orange peels in a national park. This is what it looks like today.

12,000 tons of food waste and 28 years later, this forest looks totally different.

Image via Dan Jansen

A before and after view of the experiment

In 1997, ecologists Daniel Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs approached an orange juice company in Costa Rica with an off-the-wall idea. In exchange for donating a portion of unspoiled, forested land to the Área de Conservación Guanacaste — a nature preserve in the country's northwest — the park would allow the company to dump its discarded orange peels and pulp, free of charge, in a heavily grazed, largely deforested area nearby.

One year later, one thousand trucks poured into the national park, offloading over 12,000 metric tons of sticky, mealy, orange compost onto the worn-out plot. The site was left untouched and largely unexamined for over a decade. A sign was placed to ensure future researchers could locate and study it.

16 years later, Janzen dispatched graduate student Timothy Treuer to look for the site where the food waste was dumped.

Treuer initially set out to locate the large placard that marked the plot — and failed.


natural wonders, nature, recycling, conservation, environment, oranges, orange peels, dumpsThe first deposit of orange peels in 1996.Photo by Dan Janzen.


"It's a huge sign, bright yellow lettering. We should have been able to see it," Treuer says. After wandering around for half an hour with no luck, he consulted Janzen, who gave him more detailed instructions on how to find the plot.

When he returned a week later and confirmed he was in the right place, Treuer was floored. Compared to the adjacent barren former pastureland, the site of the food waste deposit was "like night and day."


Environment, natural wonder, natural miracles, nature, oranges, planet, conservation The site of the orange peel deposit (L) and adjacent pastureland (R).Photo by Leland Werden.


"It was just hard to believe that the only difference between the two areas was a bunch of orange peels. They look like completely different ecosystems," he explains.

The area was so thick with vegetation he still could not find the sign.

Treuer and a team of researchers from Princeton University studied the site over the course of the following three years.

The results, published in the journal "Restoration Ecology," highlight just how completely the discarded fruit parts assisted the area's turnaround.

According to the Princeton School of International Public Affairs, the experiment resulted in a "176 percent increase in aboveground biomass — or the wood in the trees — within the 3-hectare area (7 acres) studied."

The ecologists measured various qualities of the site against an area of former pastureland immediately across the access road used to dump the orange peels two decades prior. Compared to the adjacent plot, which was dominated by a single species of tree, the site of the orange peel deposit featured two dozen species of vegetation, most thriving.


natural wonder, nature, environment, conservation, oranges, orange peelsLab technician Erik Schilling explores the newly overgrown orange peel plot.Photo by Tim Treuer.


In addition to greater biodiversity, richer soil, and a better-developed canopy, researchers discovered a tayra (a dog-sized weasel) and a giant fig tree three feet in diameter, on the plot.

"You could have had 20 people climbing in that tree at once and it would have supported the weight no problem," says Jon Choi, co-author of the paper, who conducted much of the soil analysis. "That thing was massive."

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Recent evidence suggests that secondary tropical forests — those that grow after the original inhabitants are torn down — are essential to helping slow climate change.

In a 2016 study published in Nature, researchers found that such forests absorb and store atmospheric carbon at roughly 11 times the rate of old-growth forests.

Treuer believes better management of discarded produce — like orange peels — could be key to helping these forests regrow.

In many parts of the world, rates of deforestation are increasing dramatically, sapping local soil of much-needed nutrients and, with them, the ability of ecosystems to restore themselves.

Meanwhile, much of the world is awash in nutrient-rich food waste. In the United States, up to half of all produce in the United States is discarded. Most currently ends up in landfills.


natural wonder, nature, conservation, environment, planet, oranges, orange peelsThe site after a deposit of orange peels in 1998.Photo by Dan Janzen.


"We don't want companies to go out there will-nilly just dumping their waste all over the place, but if it's scientifically driven and restorationists are involved in addition to companies, this is something I think has really high potential," Treuer says.

The next step, he believes, is to examine whether other ecosystems — dry forests, cloud forests, tropical savannas — react the same way to similar deposits.

Two years after his initial survey, Treuer returned to once again try to locate the sign marking the site.

Since his first scouting mission in 2013, Treuer had visited the plot more than 15 times. Choi had visited more than 50. Neither had spotted the original sign.

In 2015, when Treuer, with the help of the paper's senior author, David Wilcove, and Princeton Professor Rob Pringle, finally found it under a thicket of vines, the scope of the area's transformation became truly clear.



natural wonder, nature, environment, environmental miracle, planet, oranges, orange peelsThe sign after clearing away the vines.Photo by Tim Treuer.


"It's a big honking sign," Choi emphasizes.

19 years of waiting with crossed fingers had buried it, thanks to two scientists, a flash of inspiration, and the rind of an unassuming fruit.

This article originally appeared eight years ago.

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Education

One teacher's simple, disgusting experiment drives home the importance of hand washing

"Hand sanitizer is not an alternative to washing hands!"

Facebook/Jaralee Metcalf

Simple. Disgusting. Informative.

One of the biggest breakthroughs in preventing the spread of illnesses and infections in hospitals was embarrassingly simple: hand washing. In 1846, Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis discovered that hand washing played a vital role in the spread of germs, and the practice soon became mandatory in hospitals. The simple act of scrubbing hands with soap and water literally saved lives.

Getting a kid to wash their hands, however, can be an uphill battle. While it's a common thing kids (don't) do, global perspective on the importance and effectiveness of hand washing has risen since the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a study published by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) in 2023, before the emergence of COVID-19, a survey found that only about 36% of people always washed their hands with soap, 48% sometimes used soap, and an unsettling 16% of respondents said they wash without soap. After COVID-19 emerged, however, more than 72% of respondents reported using soap every time they washed their hands. There's nothing like a pandemic (and perhaps the reality of FAFO) to strike fear into the hearts of those chronic under washers, but in 2019, one teacher did a simple experiment to show her students just how important hand washing is.

"We did a science project in class this last month as flu season was starting," teacher Dayna Robertson and classroom behavioral specialist Jaralee Metcalf wrote on Facebook. "We took fresh bread and touched it. We did one slice untouched. One with unwashed hands. One with hand sanitizer. One with washed hands with warm water and soap. Then we decided to rub a piece on all our classroom Chromebooks." Robertson later noted that they normally do make a point to sanitize the classroom Chromebooks, but didn't that day in the name of science.

science, experiment, dexter's lab, cartoon, kids, hygiene Dexters Laboratory What A Fine Day For Science GIFGiphy

The bread was put into plastic bags and the germs were left to fester. The bread that had been touched by unwashed hands and the bread that had touched the Chromebook had the most mold. The bread that had been touched by hands washed with soap and water remained (relatively) good enough to eat.

This experiment has been done before, but Robertson expanded on it by testing the effectiveness of hand sanitizer. The bread that had been touched by hands cleaned with sanitizer also had a fair amount of mold on it, although not as much as the bread touched by unwashed hands.

bread, mold, experiment, education, hand washing, cleanlinessThe bread doesn't lie. Facebook/Jaralee Metcalf

"As somebody who is sick and tired of being sick and tired of being sick and tired," Robertson wrote, "wash your hands! Remind your kids to wash their hands! And hand sanitizer is not an alternative to washing hands!! At all!" It's kind of making us retroactively gag over seeing port-a-potties with hand sanitizer set up in lieu of sinks.

The experiment was prompted by a different science lesson. "We had just finished a science lesson on how leaves break down during winter. The kids were kind of grossed out by the mold, so we decided to run our own version using germs and mold from our own environment," Robertson told Scary Mommy.

Weirdly, the classroom experiment received some criticism. "Lots of people actually DEFENDED not washing their hands!" Robertson told Scary Mommy. "That was shocking! It really was just a simple classroom experiment to teach about mold but we have all learned more about how easily we can spread the germs we can't see."

In the 2019 lens, this lesson being about mold seems simple enough. All of us here in 2025, though, blessed (or cursed) with the experience of the pandemic, know that washing your hands really is as life-saving as Semmelweis proved nearly two centuries ago. Research done in 2020 and published in PubMed showed that individuals who washed their hands consistently were more likely to have lower rates of COVID-19 infection. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2024, hand washing also reduces respiratory illness like colds and flu in the general population by 16-21%, and reduces the number of people with diarrheal illnesses by 23-40%.

And to be sure, how we wash our hands is incredibly important. A quick rinse without scrubbing won't do the trick. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the proper technique for handwashing is to wet your hands, apply soap, and then run your soapy hands under the stream while rotating, rubbing, and scrubbing every inch of your hands for at least 20 seconds. Usually you can hit that mark by singing "Happy Birthday" twice. Then, rinse. When you're done, dry your hands with a clean towel. Check out this demonstration from the CDC:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

The moral of the story is, please, please remember to always wash your hands. It really makes a difference.

This article originally appeared six years ago. It has been updated.

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Wellness

12 unforgettable side-by-side photos of people over 100-years-old with their younger selves

A truly beautiful reminder of how delightful aging can be.

via Jan Langer/Aktualne

Jan Langer's incredible photos are timeless.

Czech photographer Jan Langer's portrait series "Faces of Century" shows them in a different light: as human beings aged by years of experience, but at their deepest level, unchanged by the passing of time. In the series, Langer juxtaposes his portraits with another portrait of the subject from decades earlier. He recreates the original pose and lighting as closely as he can — he wants us to see them not just as they are now, but how they have and haven't changed over time. That is the key to the series.

These are the rare faces of people who have lived through two world wars, a cavalcade of regimes, and the rush of advancements in modern life. These photos, and the stories of the lives lived by the people in them, show not only the beauty of aging, but how even as we age, we still remain essentially ourselves.


All photos by Jan Langer.


1. Prokop Vejdělek, at age 22 and 101


aging, photos, older people with their younger selves, aging process, 100 years oldProkop Vejdělek, at age 22 and 101via Jan Langer/Aktualne

Vejdělek is a former metallurgical engineer who will never forget the taste of warm fresh goat's milk.


2. Bedřiška Köhlerová, at age 26 and 103



via Jan Langer/Aktualne

Originally born in Merano, Italy, Köhlerová wishes to visit Italy one more time.


3. Ludvík Chybík, at age 20 and 102


via Jan Langer/Aktualne

Chybík is a former postal carrier and says he will never forget the route he worked every day.


4. Vincenc Jetelina, at age 30 and 105


via Jan Langer/Aktualne

Jetelina spent eight years in prison after World War II. Now, he just wants to live the rest of his life in peace.


5. Antonín Kovář, at age 25 and 102


via Jan Langer/Aktualne

Kovář is a former musician whose daughter comes to visit him every day. He wishes to play the clarinet once more.


6. Anna Vašinová, at age 22 and 102


via Jan Langer/Aktualne

Vašinová will always remember the day her husband was taken away by the Nazis. She wishes to be reunited with him after death.

7. Stanislav Spáčil, at age 17 and 102


via Jan Langer/Aktualne

Spáčil was an electrical engineer throughout his life and thinks that it's too early in his life to think about the past.


8. Anna Pochobradská, at age 30 and 100

via Jan Langer/Aktualne

Pochobradská was a farmer. She now lives a quiet life and is thankful that her daughter visits her every weekend.


9. Antonín Baldrman, at age 17 and 101


via Jan Langer/Aktualne

Baldrman was a clerk early in life and keeps up with current events by reading the newspaper.


10. Marie Burešová, at age 23 and 101


via Jan Langer/Aktualne

Burešová loves talking to her family and wishes to have them all together again.


11. Vlasta Čížková, at age 23 and 101


aging, photos, older people with their younger selves, aging process, 100 years oldvia Jan Langer/Aktualne

Čížková cooked in the dining room at the airport in the small village of Vodochody. She'll never forget reciting her own poetry at wedding ceremonies.


12. Ludmila Vysloužilová, at age 23 and 101


aging, photos, older people with their younger selves, aging process, 100 years oldvia Jan Langer/Aktualne

Vysloužilová stays active every day by chopping wood, shoveling snow, and doing work around her house.


The photographer Langer was initially inspired to document the lives of elderly people because of what he saw as the media's lack of coverage of them. He decided to focus on people over the age of 100 — a very rare demographic indeed. The 2020 U.S. Census recorded 80,139 people aged 100 or older, a 50.2% increase from the 53,364 centenarians counted in 2010. As our aging population continues to increase, and technology evolves along with it, it's likely these incredibly photo essays will become far more common. But for now, they are an incredible reminder of how precious and valuable life is, sometimes especially when we reach our golden years.

“One should live every single moment according to their best knowledge and conscience because one day we will see clearly what has a real value," Langer says of what he learned from his subjects while photographing them.

The series was originally part of a story that Langer did for the Czech news outlet aktuálně.cz. You can see more photos from the portrait sessions by following the link.

This article originally appeared seven years ago.

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Heroes

81-year-old waitress who couldn't retire gets $300K, thanks to stranger who shared her story

She could barely walk, but needed the job because her $910/month from social security wasn’t enough to cover her bills.

@tamie.lynn/TikTok

No one should have to go through this.

“If I can make one video go viral, I hope it’s this one.”

These were words uttered by Tamie Konzier, a Pittsburgh-based esthetician and mom was out grabbing lunch with her son Leo at a local restaurant called Eat’n Park, when she noticed Betty, a friendly server who Konzier guessed must be in her 70s, struggling to walk.

Konzier then overheard Betty telling the table next to them (who was also concerned) that she only make $910 a month with social security, which wasn’t nearly enough to cover her bills. So, despite the pain she was in, she couldn’t afford to retire from working.

@tamie.lynn Hoping we can help this sweet lady retire! I think Jen Hamilton could help me do it but I can’t tag her! #viralvideo #fyp #jenhamilton ♬ original sound - Tamie Konzier

Determined to help, Konzier told viewers that she would be leaving a $40 tip, and any proceeds she made from the video she’d post alá the TikTok Creator Rewards Program would go directly to Betty. We also overhear Betty saying “I worked all my life as a waitress and I can’t retire. I’m 81, but I can still outdo all these whippersnappers…Take care and enjoy life because it’ll go by you fast!”

Konzier got her wish. Not only did the post go viral, but offers for donations began rolling in from others who were moved by Betty’s plight. It wasn’t long before Konzier was able to create a GoFundMe for Betty. Which, as of today, has raised $329,950.

In a follow-up video, we see Kozier in happy tears, thanking all these strangers for their generosity.

@tamie.lynn Not much of an update but it’s all I have for now! #betty ♬ original sound - Tamie Konzier

“You have no idea how many messages I’m getting from everyone. I’m gonna cry. I cannot believe that this happened. I told my dad on the phone today and he cried too. I don’t even know her and I’m crying.”

Of course, watching Betty react to the news is the best part of the whole story. Kozier ended up telling her the amount of the phone (which at the time was around $140,000), to which Betty replied: “I think I better get a financial adviser! You’re God!”

“I swear I’m not,” quipped Konzier

“You don’t know what this is going to help me for,” Betty continued, sharing how this would help with the “ financial difficulties” she and her family had been facing.

@tamie.lynn Replying to @heyobobby ♬ original sound - Tamie Konzier


“I hope it helps you with everything,” said Konzier. “Bills … maybe you can go on a trip or something…I’m so happy for you! You deserve it.”

Konzier struck up a valuable point here. Regular, everyday people create God-like miracles all the time, when they feel an emotional connection to what—or who—they’re fighting for. And we don’t need to always need to know a person’s entire backstory in order to want to fight for them. Because humans are built to help one another. It’s easy to forget, but it’s also easy to remember. Stories like these certainly help with that.

Of course, there’s also something to be said here about the larger, systemic issue of social security. Betty is certainly not the only one suffering in this way. Social Security income alone isn't going to be sufficient for most people, let alone those with any kind of medical expenses. Not to mention the fact that Social Security is projected to run out in 2035. It’s fantastic that Betty got the help she needed, but policymakers need to balance the program’s costs and revenues on a collective scale so that no one is left in such a dire situation.

Stay updated on all things Betty by following Konzier on TikTok.

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Education & Information

Historian uses the Lord's Prayer to demonstrate how different medieval English sounded

"Sounds like a French Scotsman trying to be an Irish priest."

Photo credit: Canva

English in the medieval period only vaguely resembled the sound of modern English.

English is one of the most widely spoken languages on Earth, but that was not always the case. English didn't really start spreading beyond England until the British Empire began exploring and colonizing the globe in the 17th century. In the centuries before that, the English language barely resembled what we hear and speak today.

Through the medieval period (approximately 500 to 1500 A.D.), the way English pronunciation worked was very different than modern phonics. Old English, which was spoken from around 500 to around 1100, bears very little resemblance to modern English and is pretty much undecipherable to today's ears. After the Norman conquest of 1066, the Middle English period began and would span approximately 400 years. In Middle English, certain words being the same ones we use today, but with many phonetic differences that require knowing how letters were pronounced.

Medievalist professor Dr. Dorsey Armstrong shared with Wired what some of those pronunciation differences were and gave a demonstration of what medieval English sounded like by reciting portions of the Lord's Prayer from the bible, which begins, "Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name." The variation she speaks is from around the 14th century, she said.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

First, she said, all vowels would be pronounced like they would be in French, the basics of which are:

a = ah as in "father"

e = eh as in "bed" or "egg"

i = ee as in "see"

o = oh as in "go"

u = oo as in "moon"

You also pronounce almost every letter, so "knight" would sound very different (almost like "kuh-nee-gh-t").

"Fra-jee-lay…"Giphy

Listening to her recite something familiar with many English speakers makes it clear that Middle English has some totally understandable words and some that sound like a mishmosh of various English accents and dialects with a couple of other European languages thrown in for funsies.

"Sounds like an Englishman trying to order a pint of Guinness in Dublin," wrote one commenter.

"Sounds like someone trying to talk to a highlander," wrote another.

"Sounds like a French Scotsman trying to be an Irish priest," added another.

People also noted that the pronunciation actually made more sense back then if you were to read each letter phonetically. None of this silent letter nonsense modern English is filled with.

phonics, English language, letter pronunciationKids learn phonics much differently in modern times compared to medieval times.Photo credit: Canva

"Sounds like somebody who recently learned english but doesn't know about pronunciation rules."

"So 'silent' letters weren’t always silent. That makes so much sense."

"As a non-native English speaker, finally a dialect that makes sense!"

"I do appreciate that one time in the past, all the crazy English spellings were in fact completely logical as you pronounced every letter written."

If the Middle English that Dr. Dorsey Armstrong spoke sounded familiar-but-not-quite, this Old English recitation of Beowulf from medievalist professor Arthur Bahr will demonstrate how drastically English has changed over the centuries. In his Middle English recitation, there's a smattering of recognizable words, especially when you know how Middle English letters are pronounced. But in Old English, almost no words are discernable. It sounds like a completely different language.

- YouTubeyoutu.be

So how did we get from there to here? One big influence that came after the medieval period was, perhaps unsurprisingly, William Shakespeare. The Bard had a significant impact on modern English, adding and popularizing many words and idioms we still use today. The widespread popularity of his work also helped to standardize parts of the English language.

It would still take a while for spelling to become standardized in both England and the American colonies, of course. And despite modern agreement on most spellings, the diversity English accents and dialects that now exist across the British Isles and American continent is a clear testament to the ever-evolving nature of language. Won't it be fascinating to see how or if English changes much more in the next 1,000 or so years?

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