Local bowling teams to compete for SCISA state title
Hearts for service Former abandoned dog trained to help retired Marine
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VOL. 119, NO. 84 WWW.THEITEM.COM
THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2014 | SUMTER, SOUTH CAROLINA
FOUNDED OCTOBER 15, 1894
60 CENTS
Stinney hearing ends; waiting begins It could be weeks until judge rules on boy’s possible retrial BY BRISTOW MARCHANT bmarchant@theitem.com All sides have had their say on the motion to overturn
George Stinney’s murder conviction. Now it’s up to the judge whether the verdict that sent a 14-year-old to the electric chair is allowed to stand.
But it might be weeks until the families of Stinney and the two young girls he was convicted of killing, Betty June Binnicker and Mary Thames, know her final decision. Judge Carmen Mullen, a Fourteenth Circuit judge
based in Beaufort, was assigned to hear the explosive, high-profile case by the South Carolina Supreme Court. Mullen didn’t issue a ruling immediately after concluding two days of testimony at the Sumter County Judicial Center on Wednesday and gave
Fire claims hero’s life
PHOTOS BY MATT WALSH / THE ITEM
A tear rolls down Andrea Johnson’s cheek as she remembers her father, George Johnson, who rescued three people from a fire early Wednesday morning in Sumter that ultimately claimed his life. The scene of the deadly fire can be seen on page A5.
Man saves 3 before dying of smoke inhalation ‘It’s very heroic. Apparently, he didn’t think twice about going in there to help somebody At the same time, it’s a very sad situation.’ Lieutenant Matt Carroll, Sumter Fire Department
BY TYLER SIMPSON tyler@theitem.com “I got to, Carolyn. I got to try to save Aunt Wessie.” Those were the final words that George Andrew “Andy” Johnson spoke to his wife before he ran to rescue three neighbors, including family members, from a house in the 1000 block of Nathaniel Street that caught fire Wednesday morning. All three neighbors survived ... at the cost of Johnson’s life. His wife, Carolyn, said she woke up about 2:30 a.m. to find her aunt’s house next door on fire. She woke her husband to tell him about the fire,
20 N. Magnolia St. Sumter, SC 29150 (USPS 525-900)
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and Andy immediately ran out of the house to try to save his aunt-in-law. “I told Andy that the house was on fire, and he jumped out before me,” said Carolyn Johnson. “I told him not to go, but he said ‘I got to, Carolyn. I got to try to save Aunt Wessie.’” Johnson ran into the house to rescue his auntin-law, 95-year-old Wessie Johnson, and the other two people in the home. Andy Johnson apparently lifted his elderly aunt, who has an amputated leg, up to the rear window of her bedroom while the other two people in the building exited through a front window. SEE HERO, PAGE A5
Andrea Johnson shows a photo of her mother and father, Carolyn and George Johnson, dressed up for a date earlier this year.
DEATHS Edwin Jerry Blaylock Garry B. Jasper Buena M. Kirby Addie L. McCray Willie Mae Prescott Clara Dell C. Tichnell Kenneth Dinkins Sr.
Ann Lucas Fredricka H. Roddey Ozias Gray Jr. William Richard Alexander Jr. Beatrice Blount Denise Copeland
Brenda McLeod Sims George A. Johnson Vincent A. Jackson Sam Larry Pringle Julius G. Capers Jr. B5, B6
both sets of attorneys time to file more briefs on the motion. In her opening remarks to the court Tuesday, Mullen called the whole case “tragic” and said she sympathized SEE STINNEY, PAGE A5
State of the State
Gov. Haley talks jobs, education in address COLUMBIA (AP) — South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley asked legislators in her State of the State address Wednesday to pass ethics reform and her education initiative this year, and she thanked them for finally pushing through a government restructuring bill. The Republican governor’s fourth annual and largely predictable speech laid out what people are likely to hear on the campaign trail in her reelection campaign. Haley touted the state’s lowest unemployment rate in five HALEY years and the jobs her agency has announced in 45 of the state’s 46 counties. She again called on the Legislature to pass a bill strengthening the state’s ethics laws. She asked legislators to invest more in road and bridge construction, while reiterating her promise to veto any proposal that increases the gas tax. She again called for a cut on personal income taxes — a repeated budget proposal to eliminate the 6 percent tax bracket, saving the average filer less than $30. “This simple change will put money back into the pockets of South Carolina’s working families, and I ask that you join me in giving our taxpayers some additional relief,” she said in her 37-minute speech, nearly 15 minutes shorter than last year’s. The governor spent much of it advocating for her education initiative that focuses on spending more on poor, rural students. “The most glaring failure on our part has been the failure to acknowledge that it simply costs more to educate a child in poverty,” she said. “As a state, we can’t afford to ignore that any longer.” Other parts of her plan, announced earlier this month, involve improving reading skills SEE HALEY, PAGE A10
OUTSIDE STILL CHILLY
INSIDE 2 SECTIONS, 18 PAGES
Mostly sunny and chilly; clear and very cold tonight HIGH: 44 LOW: 17 A10
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