The beloved matron of a reform school is brutally stabbed to death. Alexander McClay Williams, a 16 year old Black student with arrests for arson and theft is hastily charged with the murder.
Despite the efforts of the county’s lone Black attorney, William H. Ridley, Alexander is quickly convicted by the era’s standard - an all-White jury. He becomes the youngest person to be executed in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Decades later: Ridley’s great-grandson, Sam Lemon, begins to unearth a raft of potentially exculpatory evidence, including the victim’s prior abuse at the hand of her husband.
Lemon joins forces with Alexander’s surviving sister, the victim’s great-niece, and a local attorney in an all-out effort to uncover the truth, which they believe will fully exonerate Alexander.
The Glen Mills reform school, where Alexander resided, becomes the subject of increased public attention and, in 2019, is forced to close its doors and settle with dozens of students who suffered abuse there.
How many young Black men at Glen Mills and institutions of its kind can find their own stories int he case of Alexander McClay Williams? How many others will never get the chance?
