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Willie Francis
Willie Francis (January 12, 1929 – May 9, 1947) is best known for surviving a failed execution by electrocution in the United States.〔 He was a black juvenile offender sentenced to death at age 16 by the state of Louisiana in 1945 for murdering Andrew Thomas, a Cajun pharmacy owner in St. Martinville who had once employed him. He was 17 when he survived the first attempt to execute him, as the chair malfunctioned. After an appeal of his case taken to the US Supreme Court failed, he was executed in 1947 at age 18.
== Arrest and trial ==
In 1944 Andrew Thomas, a pharmacist in St. Martinville, Louisiana was shot and killed. His murder remained unsolved for nine months; in August 1945 Willie Francis, a black teenager, was detained in Texas due to his proximity to an unrelated crime. Police found that he was carrying Thomas' wallet in his pocket.
Francis initially named several others in connection with the murder, but the police dismissed these claims. A short time later under interrogation, Francis confessed to Thomas's murder, writing, "It was a secret about me and him." He had no counsel with him.〔 The meaning of his statement is still uncertain. Author Gilbert King, in his book, ''The Execution of Willie Francis'' (2008), alludes to rumors in St. Martinville of sexual abuse of the youth by the pharmacist. Francis later directed the police to where he had disposed of the holster used to carry the murder weapon. The gun used to kill Thomas was found near the crime scene. It belonged to a deputy sheriff in St. Martinville who had once threatened to kill Thomas. The gun, and the bullets recovered from the crime scene and Thomas' body, disappeared from police evidence just before the trial.
Despite two separate written confessions, Francis pleaded not guilty. During his trial, the court-appointed defense attorneys offered no objections, called no witnesses, and put up no defense. The validity of Francis' confessions were not questioned by the defense, although he had no counsel at the time.〔(Gilbert King, "The Two Executions Of Willie Francis" ), ''Washington Post'', 19 July 2006, accessed 28 December 2014〕 Two days after the trial began, Francis was quickly convicted of murder and was sentenced to death by twelve jurors and the judge despite his having been underage at 15 at the time of the crime. As Louisiana had disfranchised nearly all blacks at the turn of the century by its new state constitution, the jury was all-white (only voters could serve).
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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