Ruth Hill-Turner wasn't home the day 11-year-old Betty June Binnicker came looking for her sister at their home in Alcolu.
"She came looking for my sister, Violet Freeman, and Violet wasn't at home. My mother talked to (Betty June)," Hill-Turner said Wednesday. "She told my mother they were going to pick flowers. Momma understood they were picking flowers to give to the teacher. It was a Friday afternoon, so I'm not sure if they were for the teacher. Either way, they were going to pick flowers and she wanted my sister to go with her."
Betty June was found later that day along with Mary Emma Thames, 7. The girls had been bludgeoned to death. George Julius Stinney Jr., 14, was arrested and ultimately convicted and executed just 88 days later.
"He had threatened my sister and Sadie Roberson Duke," Hill-Turner said. "The Robersons lived within 300 to 400 feet of the Green Hill Missionary Baptist Church. He told them if they came back down there, he would kill them. When those girls were killed, everyone knew who did it."
Hill-Turner said she had no particular opinion on an order handed down Wednesday by Circuit Court Judge Carmen T. Mullen overturning Stinney's conviction, granting Stinney attorneys' filing of a writ of coram nobis last year. A hearing was held in January on the writ, which allows a judge to correct errors of fact in a case when no other legal remedy exists.
In her opinion, Mullen said she was judging the case based on whether Stinney received a fair trial and fair legal representation, not on its merits. She did not comment as to his guilt or innocence, but stated that Stinney received an unfair trial.
"I think it's a tragedy that two little girls were brutally murdered," Hill-Turner said. "And I think it's a tragedy that he lost his life. Three lives were taken. It's a tragedy all around."
