home > on-air > american talkers > youngest executed >

ROBINSON: My name is Katherine Stinney Robinson, and I'm the youngest sister of George Stinney, Jr.

BAILEY: My name is Lorraine Bailey, and Betty June Binnicker was my baby sister. That afternoon, she and the other little girl next door wanted to go pick some flowers and she got on her bicycle and took the other little girl with her. She said, um, “We'll be back, in about thirty minutes,” and they rode off on the bicycle.

ROBINSON: The two little girls passed our house and they said they were going looking for maypops and asked us if we knew anything about maypops and we said no, you know. And they just went on down the street, riding their bikes, two little girls.

BAILEY: When she didn't come back, we started to worry because she never did do that. She always was there when she said she was going to be there. And she never did come back. They looked all night long for them. They found them the next day, both of them. Well, I can't describe that.

ROBINSON: And all I remember is the people coming to our house and taking my brother. And no police officers with hats or anything—these were men in suits or whatever that came. I don't know how they knew to come to that house and pick up my brother.

BAILEY: Everybody knew that he done—even before they had the trial they knew he done it. But, I don't think they had too much of a trial.

ROBINSON: I remember my mother cried so. She cried her little eyes all swollen. I would hear her praying. She said, “I just want you to change the minds of men. Because my son didn't do this.” But it wasn't long after that that they just did it. He was gone.

BAILEY: I think if he was able to kill two people, he didn't have any business to be living. If he got away with that, the next time he probably would have killed three.

ROBINSON: I remember going to the funeral. I couldn't believe what they had done to that little boy. I'll never forget the way he looked.

BAILEY: Oh, I think about her all the time. I've got a picture of her over there. She was a real pretty little girl. She had dark brown hair, dark brown eyes. She was just a darling baby.

ROBINSON: He was like my idol, you know. He was very smart in school, very artistic. He could draw all kinds of things. We had a good family. Small house, but there was a lot of love. It took my mother a long time to get over it. And maybe she never got over it.

BAILEY: Oh, I don't think my mom ever got over it. I don't think none of us ever got over it. Still not over it, I don't reckon. I don't reckon you ever get over something like that.

Producer: Karen Callahan / Production Assistant: Eliza Bettinger / Funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts.

"George Stinney, Youngest Executed" premiered June 30, 2004, on Day to Day. Copyright © 2004 Sound Portraits Productions. All Rights Reserved.

Please consider supporting the work of Sound Portraits and StoryCorps by making a donation.

This piece is available in the following audio formats [3:49 min]:
		28.8 kbps Real Audio
		56 kbps Real Audio
		ISDN Real Audio

		intro
		transcript

		Juveniles and the Death Penalty, from the Death Penalty Information Center
		George Stinney's Prison Records (PDF, 435KB)

home  |  ON-AIR |  in-print |  about |  education |  support |  store

Sound Portraits Productions, 80 Hanson Place, 2nd Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11217
Telephone (646) 723-7020 | Fax (646) 723-7026

Copyright © 2010 Sound Portraits Productions. All rights reserved.