he was convicted of something he probably didn t do and he was executed shortly afterward without even an appeal. and so that is the core argument and they are asking for this case to be thrown out in essence and for his name to be cleared and so toward that end, they are putting witnesses on the stand who claim that they have evidence that they are not allowed to give at the time because his family was run out of town. on the stand right now is his sister, katherine steny robinson, age 79, who was a child back then in 1944 who claims she saw she saw her brother and his little sister talking to the little while girls who were murdered of which he was charged with killing, but that they walked away and george came home. he had no blood on his clothing or anything like that. so that s the first set of witnesses that we re going to have coming up today. thank you so much.
0 speaker prieto, all of the former governors and members of the supreme court, members of our congressional delegation, members of the new jersey state legislature, members of my cabinet, family and friends, today once again, the people of new jersey have given me the opportunity to serve. [ applause ] and i thank each and every citizen for that honor. i have taken an oath where i have sworn to promote the peace and pro pert of our great state and its citizens and a long oath it is chief, a long one. it is an oath i ve lived by for the last four years and it is the oath i will live by for every day i m privileged to call myself your governor. [ applause ] the oath is just a symbol of the bond we have created with each other over the last four years. we have endured the worst economic recession of our lifetimes and begun to triumph over it. we have confronted entrenched interest and their endless stream of money that previously stood in the way of physical sanity for our state and ex
and no appeal. now some attorneys, historian and film maker are trying to clear steny s name. the events leading to the execution of 14-year-old george steny jr. began in the tiny milltown of south carolina. in march of 1944, two white girls ages 11 and 17 were beaten to death while picking wild flowers along the railroad tracks separating the white and black sections of town. historian george fryerson. bodies were found in a creek bed in this general area. they had been brutally murdered. reporter: shortly afterward they arrested george steny jr. and claimed he gave an oral confession. his family was run out of town and he was tried for murder in this courthouse packed with whites only. ray brown, who is producing a movie about the case, says the real killer got away and the trial was a sham. it was a situation where he clearly was railroaded, there
was no evidence, nobody could find anything. the trial lasted just two hours. the jury took only ten minutes to convict and steny was sentenced to die. during the trial here, steny was represented by a court appointed lawyer, who never put on his own case. never attacked a state s case and never filed an appeal, which would have delayed the execution by a year. just 83 days after his arrest, steny, weighing only 95 pounds was strapped in the electric chair and put to death. george sten why did not do it. but now a south carolina law firm has filed a motion seeking a new trial, which if granted could clear steny s name. it would have been difficult if not implausible for george steny jr. to have done what the government said he did. the motion claims there is no physical evidence, no written record of the confession and no witnesses and no trial transcript. steny s brother and sister both
still alive say he was with his family at the time of the killings. you had a virtual mob outside the courthouse putting the pressure on this jury because they weren t there to see george steny acquitted. they were there to see george steny convicted. advocates say the time has come right a historic wrong. i wanten apology from the state of north carolina for putting one of these citizens to death. steny s body rests in an unmarked grave in this baptist church cemetery. they hope by the end of the year he ll get a new day in court. we can t forget there s also the tragedy that two little girls were murdered and the real possibility that the real killer got away. we tried to reach the south carolina goofer s office for a comment on the idea of a state apology and so far gotten no response. mark, what is the next step? when might something happen from a legal perspective to try to