Willie Francis (January 12, 1929 – May 9, 1947) is best known for being the first recipient of a failed execution by electrocution in the United States. He was a black juvenile offender sentenced to death by electrocution by the state of Louisiana in 1945 (at age 16) for murdering Andrew Thomas, a Cajun pharmacy owner in St. Martinville who had once employed him.
Read more about Willie Francis: Arrest and Trial, Execution, Appeal, and Second Execution, Documentary
Famous quotes containing the word francis:
“Sir Francis, Sir Francis, Sir Francis is come;”
—Unknown. Upon Sir Francis Drake’s Return from His Voyage about the World, and the Queen’s Meeting Him (l. 1)