Alexander McClay Williams

Alexander McClay Williams was 16 years old when Pennsylvania executed him. A Substack account says he was convicted by an all-white jury and executed about five months later, without a single appeal. Ninety-one years after his death he was cleared, and that account says a relative of his original lawyer, Sam Lemon, helped uncover a record showing the boy was innocent. His last surviving sibling, Susie Williams Carter, was 94 years old when he was cleared.

Cause of death, as reported: Executed by the state. Pennsylvania executed Williams when he was 16, and the account says he was later cleared about ninety-one years after his death and was innocent.

Source

• You Can’t Pardon a Corpse: The Chair Was Fast. The Apology Took Seventy Years Substack, October 17, 2026