Scholar’s Documentary Leads to S.C. Pardon for Tom Joyner’s Great-Uncles: 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.
'This won't bring them back, but this will bring closure. I hope now that they rest in peace,' Joyner said. 'This is a good day.'
