A black teen who is believed to be the youngest person executed in the U.S. in the 20th century had his murder conviction thrown out by a circuit court judge on Wednesday, NBC News reported. George Stinney Jr. was convicted of beating two young white girls to death in 1944 and was executed a short time later. Civil rights advocates have spent years trying to get the case reopened, arguing that his confession was coerced. At 95 pounds, Stinney was so small that he had to sit on a phone book in the electric chair.
