Youngest Person Executed In PA Has Conviction Dismissed

DELAWARE COUNTY, PA — Authorities in Delaware County have dismissed the case against Pennsylvania's youngest person to be executed.

Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer Monday said the case against Alexander McClay Williams has been nol prossed, a decision that marks an acknowledgement that the charges against him should never have been brought.

The DA's office made the decision after a joint motion for a new trial brought by Robert Keller Esq. and the DA's office at a hearing before the Honorable Kevin Kelly.

Williams, a 16- year-old Black student at the Glen Mills School for Boys, was convicted and sentenced to death at the Media Courthouse on Feb. 27, 1931.

He is the youngest person executed in Pennsylvania history.

On Oct. 3, 1930, Vida Robare, 34, a white house matron at the Glen Mills School for Boys, was found brutally murdered in her cottage on the school grounds.

Her body was found by Fred Robare, her estranged ex-husband, who was also an employee at the school.

Williams, a 16-year- old juvenile was charged with the crime.

Williams had previously been adjudicated delinquent and was serving an indefinite term at Glen Mills.

On Oct. 24, 1930, William H. Ridley, Esq., the first African American lawyer to join the Delaware County Bar Association, was appointed to represent the juvenile.

During the 17 days between Williams’ arrest and the appointment of his counsel, Williams signed three separate confessions, and had been interrogated five times without an attorney or parent present.

Williams "confessed" to the crime, despite the lack of eyewitnesses or direct evidence implicating him.

Ridley was given $10 by the Court for expenses — about $173 today — and had only 74 days to establish a defense, without the assistance of investigators, experts, or resources.

The state assembled a 15-member team to handle the trial, which lasted less than two days.

The defendant faced an all-white jury, which found him guilty in less than four hours.

No appeal was ever filed.

Susie Carter, Williams' sole surviving sister, now 92, and defense counsel Ridley’s great-grandson, Sam Lemon, have worked tirelessly for years to demonstrate the inconsistencies in the evidence as well as the unscrupulous manner in which the case was handled.

Substantial exculpatory evidence was either ignored or unexamined at trial.

For example, the bloody handprint of a full-grown man found near the door of the crime scene was photographed by the Pennsylvania State Police, examined by two fingerprint experts, yet never publicly identified or mentioned at trial.

Moreover, investigators did not appear to know that the victim had been granted a divorce from her estranged husband on the grounds of "extreme cruelty."

Yet he was never considered a suspect.

"We certainly recognize that the actions taken in 1930 were before Miranda and Gideon became the law of the land," Stollsteimer said. "However, this young man was entitled to the protections of our Constitution, particularly the Fifth Amendment’s protections against self-incrimination and the Sixth Amendment’s right to counsel. We believe that this young man’s constitutional protections were violated in an irreparable way"

In 2017, as a result of Lemon’s advocacy with his counsel, Keller, William’s record was expunged.