A Wrongfully Convicted Black Teen was the Youngest Person Ever Executed in Pa. — Now His Family Is Suing

Alexander McClay Williams was wrongfully executed on June 8, 1931, for the murder of 34-year-old Vida Robare

• The family of a teen who was wrongfully executed in 1931 filed a civil lawsuit against Delaware County on Monday, May 20

• Alexander McClay Williams was a Black 16-year-old who was executed on June 8, 1931 for the murder of 34-year-old Vida Robare

• Williams was coerced into confessing despite never being seen near the crime scene. He has since been exonerated

The family of a teen who was executed in Pennsylvania in 1931 has filed a lawsuit seeking damages.

According to NBC 10, Alexander McClay Williams — who was Black and 16 years old at the time of his execution — is the youngest person to be put to death in the state.

The outlet reports that the lawyers of Williams’ family announced on Monday, May 20, that they would be filing a civil rights lawsuit against Delaware County. This was the county that prosecuted him in 1931, according to WHYY-PBS.

"They murdered him,” Williams' only surviving sibling Susie Williams Carter, 94, of Chester, said at a press conference on May 20, per WHYY-PBS. “They need to pay for killing my brother.”

According to the outlet, Philadelphia lawyer Joseph Marrone filed the federal lawsuit against Delaware County on Friday, May 17. The lawsuit was also filed against the estates of a prosecutor and two detectives who were on the case.

“This tragedy haunted the family, haunted the parents, haunted Susie, haunted [trial lawyer] William Ridley and his family,” Marrone said, per the outlet. “There was nothing to connect him to the murder. He was a convenient Black boy at the hands of these detectives and this prosecutor."

This news comes after Williams’ conviction was overturned in 2022 with an order for a retrial, per The New York Times.

PEOPLE has contacted Delaware County for comment.

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Williams was convicted of murdering a White 34-year-old woman named Vida Robare. Vida worked at the Glen Mills School for Boys, where the teen attended.

NBC 10 reports that Vida's ex-husband Fred Robare — who also worked at the school — found her dead in her cottage on the school premises on October 3, 1930. She had been stabbed 47 times.

According to NBC 10 and The New York Times, there were no witnesses to Vida's murder and Williams was coerced into confessing despite never being seen at the crime scene.

However, the evidence reportedly pointed to a different culprit: Vida's ex-husband. Court records stated Vida filed for divorce from Fred, citing "extreme cruelty," per NBC 10.

Despite there being no evidence that connected Williams to the crime, the teen was tried in front of an all-White jury and sentenced to death by the electric chair after being convicted of first-degree murder. He was executed on June 8, 1931, four months after the murder of Vida.

Dr. Sam Lemon — the great-grandson of Williams’ defense lawyer William Ridley — spent decades alongside Williams’ sister Carter, fighting for the teen's innocence.

According to The Washington Post, Lemon visited the crime scene, examined court and genealogical records and examined Williams’ psyche by commissioning a psychological autopsy.

Meanwhile, Lemon went on to discover that Vida's death certificate had been forged and Williams was listed as an adult on his certificate instead of a minor, per NBC 10.

Williams was posthumously exonerated in 2022 by Gov. Tom Wolf, WHYY-PBS reports.

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