US: African-American teen acquitted of murder he did not commit 91 years after his execution

He was sentenced to death and was executed at the age of 16 for murder and 91 years later, her trial Pennsylvaniain the east USArecognized this week the innocence of Alexander McClay Williamsgiving justice to this African-American and his only sister who lives and is 92 years old.

“I’m just happy that it’s ending as it should have started”said the Sushi Williams-Carterthe teen’s sister, quoted today by The Philadelphia Inquirer and Fox. “We knew he was innocent, now we want everyone to know”.

“We can not rewrite history. But when justice can be done by publicly acknowledging such a mistake, we must seize the opportunity. “said for his part the Delaware County Attorney in Pennsylvania, Jack Stolstheimer.

The prosecutor said the above in a statement after the acquittal was announced on Monday by a county judge in favor of Alexander McClay Williams, after years of litigation.

White jurors

“This decision is a recognition that the charges against him should never have been brought”the prosecutor added, recalling that the teenager, who was killed on February 27, 1931, went down in state history as the youngest boy to be executed after serving his last sentence.

On October 3, 1930, her husband Vida Robarea white man in charge of the Glen Mills School for Boys, a juvenile detention center, found the body of his wife, who had “Brutally murdered” inside her wooden house located in the courtyard of the institution, reminds the prosecutor’s office.

Alexander McClay Williams, 16, who was serving a sentence at the detention center, was quickly charged with murder. He had signed confessions three times during five interrogations without the presence of a lawyer or a relative “despite the absence of witnesses or direct evidence,” the img added..

His later-appointed lawyer, William Ridley, the county’s first African-American lawyer, did not have the means to prepare for the trial and “The accused was confronted by a body of jurors who were all white, who found him guilty in less than four hours”continues the prosecutor’s office.

Jack Stolsteiner pays tribute to “Incessant, for years” work of the boy’s sister and the lawyer’s great-grandson to show the “inconsistencies” of the file, as evidence that could acquit the accused but were nevertheless ignored.

The prosecutor referred to the “bloody handprint of an adult man who was found near the door of the crime scene and was photographed by the police” but “was never mentioned in the trial”. Or the existence of another suspect, Vida Robare’s ex-husband, from whom she had divorced “for” extreme savagery “.

Source: News Beast

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