Imagine being on record as the first minor to ever be executed in the United States. The “lucky guy” to get this dubious honor was a fellow by the name of Thomas Granger
Imagine being on record as the first minor to ever be executed in the United States. The “lucky guy” to get this dubious honor was a fellow by the name of Thomas Granger. He was executed for being a pervert — his crime was repeated acts of bestiality.
Granger couldn’t keep his hands off animals — he molested a cow, several sheep, a female horse, chickens… he was then “caught in the act”. So according to Biblical principles, the now-tainted animals were killed before Granger’s eyes, after which he, himself, was hanged as an abomination in the eyes of the Lord.
Thomas Granger died in 1642, aged 16, for being an “incorrigible animal-buggerer”. He’ll go down in history books for rather nasty and dubious reasons. But yes, it was a first, all the same. Hearing of this story, I feel pity only for the poor animals — first abused, then killed for it.
The youngest person to have been executed in the 20th century was likely Joe Persons, a boy executed by hanging in Georgia on September 24, 1915 for the rape of an 8-year-old girl that he committed in June 1915. Persons reportedly confessed to the crime while he was on the gallows. Persons' age has not been confirmed; while he was reportedly 13 at the time of the crime's commission, he was variously reported to have been 12, 13, 14, 15, or "not older than 14" at the time of his execution. He weighed only 65 pounds, leading contemporary death penalty researcher M. Watt Espy to posit that Persons was likely closer to 12 than he was to 15.[4][5][6][7]
The second youngest person to be executed, and the youngest to have a confirmed birth date (of October 21, 1929), was George Stinney, who was electrocuted in South Carolina at the age of 14 on June 16, 1944, after the bodies of two children (ages 7 and 11) were found close to his home. George Stinney maintained his innocence throughout his trial and subsequent execution. The verdict of this case was overturned posthumously.
The third youngest person to be executed in the 20th century was Fortune Ferguson in 1927 for rape in Florida; he allegedly committed the crime when he was 13 years old.[8]
James Arcene, a Native American, was 10 years old when he was involved in a robbery and murder in Arkansas. He was, however, 23 years old when he was actually executed on June 18, 1885.[9]
The last judicially-approved execution of a juvenile was convicted murderer Leonard Shockley, who died in a Maryland gas chamber on April 10, 1959, at the age of 17. Nobody has been under the age of 19 at the time of execution since at least 1964.[10][11]
The peak decade for juvenile executions was the 1940s, when 53 people who were under 18 at the times of their crimes were put to death.
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