Tom Joyner's Great Uncles Finally Pardoned

Anyone who followed this year's installment of the PBS series "African American Lives 2" by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. rememberes a chilling story that they shared with radio host Tom Joyner regarding his great uncles.

From the Washington Post today:

Two great-uncles of syndicated radio host Tom Joyner, sent to the electric chair for the 1913 murder of a Confederate Army veteran, were unanimously pardoned Wednesday by South Carolina.

Officials believe the men are the first in the state to be posthumously pardoned in a capital murder case.

Black landowners Thomas and Meeks Griffin were executed 94 years ago after a jury convicted them of killing 73-year-old John Lewis, a wealthy white veteran living in Blackstock, a Chester County town 40 miles north of Columbia. Two other black men were also put to death for the crime.

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