Radio Host Wants Dead Relatives Pardoned

Syndicated radio host Tom Joyner is asking South Carolina for a posthumous pardon for two great-uncles executed in 1915 after being convicted of murdering a Confederate Army veteran.

The host of "The Tom Joyner Morning Show" said a pardon could bring about long-overdue justice.

Joyner learned of the fate of landowning farmers Thomas and Meeks Griffin during filming of the PBS documentary "African American Lives 2." The Dallas-based radio personality says he was stunned by what happened.

The Griffins and two other black men were executed for the April 1913 shooting death of 73-year-old John Lewis of Blackstock. The four were implicated by a small-time criminal, who testified against them in a deal to spare his life. Records show he later said the four knew nothing about the murder.