The family of the youngest person ever executed in the state of Pennsylvania — a Black 16-year-old sent to the electric chair in 1931 and exonerated by the governor in 2022 — is suing the county that prosecuted him.

Alexander McClay Williams was convicted of murder in the October 1930 icepick stabbing of a white woman in her cottage on the grounds of his reform school.

Vida Robare, 34, had been stabbed 47 times. Her ex-husband, who also worked at the school, reported finding the body, and a photograph of an adult’s bloody handprint, taken at the scene, was examined by two fingerprint experts. But that wasn’t mentioned at the trial, nor was the fact that she had been granted a divorce on the grounds of “extreme cruelty.”

The 5-foot-5, 125-pound Williams instead quickly became a suspect, even though his hands were smaller, there were no eyewitnesses and no evidence linked him to the crime. He was held for days of interrogation without his parents or a lawyer on hand, and ultimately signed three confessions, researchers found.

He was convicted by an all-white jury on January 7, 1931, and executed five months later, on June 8.

“They murdered him,” Susie Williams Carter, 94, of Chester, the last surviving sibling in the family of 13 children, said at a press conference Monday. “They need to pay for killing my brother.”

She was only about a year old at the time, and her parents, devastated, did not talk about it much. They had run a boarding house in Coatesville, but abandoned the business and left town as the scandal garnered national attention, she said.

“This tragedy haunted the family, haunted the parents, haunted Susie, haunted (trial lawyer) William Ridley and his family,” said Philadelphia lawyer Joseph Marrone, who filed the federal lawsuit on Friday against Delaware County and the estates of two detectives and a prosecutor who had pursued the case.

“There was nothing to connect him to the murder. He was a convenient Black boy at the hands of these detectives and this prosecutor,” Marrone said.

Gov. Tom Wolf apologized on behalf of Pennsylvania when he exonerated Williams, and called his execution “an egregious miscarriage of justice.” District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said the teen’s constitutional rights had been violated, and a Delaware County judge vacated the conviction.

Williams had been sent to the Glen Mills School for Boys for starting a fire that burned down a barn, Carter said. The 193-year-old school closed in 2019 after a Philadelphia Inquirer investigation into decades-long allegations of child abuse.

Author and educator Samuel Lemon had known about the case since he was a child because Williams was defended at trial by his great-grandfather, William H. Ridley. The only Black lawyer in Delaware County at the time, Ridley had been paid $10 for the trial, with no support for investigators or experts. He faced off against a team of 15.

Lemon researched the case, tracking down the 300-page trial transcript, and found problems with the evidence, including documents that show Williams’ age incorrectly listed as 18, not 16, along with the husband’s history of abuse.

“As I unpeeled the layers, it became quite evident to me that Alexander McClay Williams was innocent,” Lemon said. “This was kind of a legal lynching.”

Carter said the truth about her brother might never have been known if not for the work by Lemon and others.

“My mother kept saying, ‘Alex didn’t do that. There’s no way he could have done that.’ She was right. But it affected us all,” she said.

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. (CBS) — This week marks the 50th anniversary of EMS Week, and one Pennsylvania department is celebrating faster response times, thanks to new graduates from the fire academy.

“A dream. I love my job,” said Joshua DePietro, more than two weeks into his new role as a firefighter-paramedic.

He is one of 12 new professional firefighters and emergency medical technicians with the Upper Merion Township Fire Department. DePietro helps to supplement about 50 volunteer first responders who cover the community of more than 35,000 people.

“We can help them out, they help us out,” he said. “And it creates better coverage for the township at whole.”

Before graduation day on May 3, the department had just one shift with professional firefighters and EMTs along with on-call volunteers, Upper Merion Fire Chief James Johnson said. At the time, the response time was more than eight minutes.

“So by having that second unit, we’ve actually reduced those response times down into the 5-minute 20-second area,” he said.

Johnson said since the newest class of firefighters joined the station, it means even faster results when the community needs them most.

“So that we can get to residents’ homes quicker, so we can help our mutual aid partners in Norristown, people who are on the Schuylkill Expressway or on the Turnpike that have a motor vehicle accident,” Johnson said.

The new positions were made possible by a three-year FEMA grant. That grant made firefighter-paramedic DePietro’s dream of becoming a first responder possible, too.

“Truly, this is the greatest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” DiPietro said.

YOUR PATCH — Red Lobster, which has 31 restaurants in Pennsylvania, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as part of a strategy to recoup losses from its endless shrimp promotion that included the abrupt closing last week of more than 50 locations nationwide.

Some of the restaurants in the Philadelphia metro area include:

• 1 Baltimore Pike Springfield, PA 19064
• 9140 Roosevelt Blvd E., Philadelphia, PA 19115
• 425 W. DeKalb Pike, King of Prussia, PA 19406
• 640 Cowpath Road, Lansdale, PA 19446
• 2275 E. Lincoln Highway, Langhorne, PA 19047

Red Lobster’s bankruptcy was expected. Its “Ultimate Endless Shrimp” promotion last year was intended as a limited-time offer but brought in enough new customers that the chain added it to its permanent menu in June. Customers gobbled it up, and the chain reported fourth-quarter 2023 losses of $12.5 million, the outlet reported.

Red Lobster said the remaining restaurants will remain open and continue operating as usual during the bankruptcy process. The chain currently has 578 restaurants in 44 U.S. states and Canada.

“This restructuring is the best path forward for Red Lobster. It allows us to address several financial and operational challenges and emerge stronger and re-focused on our growth,” CEO Jonathan Tibus said in a news release. “The support we’ve received from our lenders and vendors will help ensure that we can complete the sale process quickly and efficiently while remaining focused on our employees and guests.”