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Willie Francis (January 12, 1929 – May 9, 1947) was an American teenager known for surviving a failed execution by electrocution in the United States.[2] He was a convicted juvenile sentenced to death at age 16 by the state of Louisiana in 1945 for the murder of Andrew Thomas, a pharmacy owner in St. Martinville who had once employed him. In the modern day, Francis's guilt has been disputed.[3] 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 Supreme Court of the United States failed, he was executed in 1947 at age 18.
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Willie Francis | |
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| Born | January 12, 1929 Saint Martinville, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Died | May 9, 1947 (aged 18) |
| Cause of death | Execution by electrocution |
| Known for | First known incident of a failed execution by electrocution in the United States[2] |
| Conviction(s) | First-degree murder |
| Criminal penalty | Death |
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In 1944, Andrew Thomas, a pharmacist in St. Martinville, Louisiana, was shot and killed. His murder remained unsolved for nine months, but in August 1945, Willie Francis was detained in Texas on suspicion of drug trafficking due to him carrying a briefcase and speaking with a stutter.[3] Police claimed that he was carrying Thomas' wallet in his pocket, though no evidence of this claim was submitted during the trial.[3]
Francis initially named several others in connection with the murder, but the police dismissed these claims. A short time later, while under interrogation, Francis confessed to Thomas' murder, writing, "It was a secret about me and him." He had no counsel with him.[4] 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' first confession claimed that he stole the gun used to kill Thomas from August Fuselier, a deputy sheriff in St. Martinville.[3] Fuselier had once threatened to kill Thomas.[3] The gun, and the bullets recovered from the crime scene and Thomas' body, disappeared from police evidence just before the trial.[3]
Despite two separate written confessions, Francis pleaded not guilty. Many of Francis' proponents have speculated that he was innocent and had been coerced to make false confessions.[3] During his trial, the court-appointed defense attorneys offered no objections, called no witnesses, and put up no defense.[3] The validity of Francis' confessions were not questioned by the defense, although he had no counsel at the time.[4] Two days after the trial began, Francis was quickly found guilty of murder by twelve white jurors and the judge sentenced Francis to death despite Francis having been underage at 15 at the time of the crime.
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On May 3, 1946, Francis survived an attempt at execution by the electric chair. Witnesses reported hearing the teenager scream from behind the leather hood, "Take it off! Take it off! Let me breathe!" as the supposedly lethal surge of electricity was being applied.[5] The portable electric chair, known as "Gruesome Gertie", was found to have been improperly set up by an intoxicated prison guard and inmate from the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. The sheriff, E.L. Resweber, was later quoted as saying: "This boy really got a shock when they turned that machine on."[5]
After the botched execution, attorney Bertrand DeBlanc decided to take Francis' case. He felt it was unjust, and cruel and unusual punishment, as prohibited in the Constitution, to subject him again to the execution process. DeBlanc had been best friends with Thomas and his decision was greeted with dismay by the citizens in the small Cajun town. DeBlanc took Francis' case to the Supreme Court in Francis v. Resweber, 329 U.S. 459 (1947), citing various violations of his Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights. These included violations of equal protection, double jeopardy, and cruel and unusual punishment.
The US Supreme Court rejected the appeal. DeBlanc then began attempting to have Francis' murder conviction overturned citing new evidence and deep flaws in Francis' trial.[3] Francis, however, did not want a second trial and persuaded DeBlanc to desist shortly before his next scheduled execution.[3] Subsequently, Willie Francis was returned to the electric chair on May 9, 1947. He told reporter Elliott Chaze a couple of days prior to the execution that he was going to meet the Lord with his "Sunday pants and Sunday heart." He was pronounced dead in the chair at 12:10 p.m. (Central Time).[6]
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- Ernest Gaines' 1993 novel A Lesson Before Dying, telling the story of a young black man facing execution in 1940s Louisiana, was partly based on the Willie Francis case.[7]
- In the experimental film, Olly Olly Oxen Free, British filmmaker Julia Dogra-Brazell locates the Willie Francis case in the context of technological innovation of late 1940s America, pointing to the effect such innovation had on what constitutes 'fact'. The film premiered at the 61st BFI London Film Festival in 2017.
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