1930s Delco Murder Case, Resulting in the Youngest Execution in State History, Is Reopened

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Glen Mills School, Vida Robare, Sam Lemon, Alexander McClay Williams' niece (left) and great niece.
Image via Fox 29.
Glen Mills School, Vida Robare, Sam Lemon, Alexander McClay Williams' niece (left) and great niece.

The family of a teen executed for murder 91 years ago at the Glen Mills School has been working to clear his name and now the case has been reopened in court Monday, reports FOX 29 News.

The hope is that Common Pleas Court President Judge Kevin F. Kelly will overturn the conviction of Alexander McClay Williams, based on new details that were introduced at the Monday hearing.

Williams was a 16-year-old African American student at Glen Mills School, convicted of murdering 33-year-old Vida Robare, who was white.  Her body was discovered by her ex-husband.

Robare was a “house matron” at the school. She was stabbed 47 times with an ice pick.

Williams was at the school on an unsupervised work detail when the murder took place. He was arrested Oct. 10, 1930, and charged.

He ended up confessing three times to the murder without an attorney or parent present.

An all-white jury returned a guilty verdict and Williams was executed on June 8, 1931. He is the youngest person ever executed in Pennsylvania.

“This guilty verdict was decided before the case even began,” said Sam Lemon, the great-grandson of Williams’ trial attorney.

Read more at FOX 29 about this reopened 91-year-old murder case.

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