In the USA, has a white person ever gotten the chair for killing a black person?

Factual Questions
1

That about sums it up- does anyone know?

2

At least 20 times:

3

This site lists 20 since the reintroduction of the US death penalty in 1986. It lists 212 executions of blacks whose victims were white.

4

Er, 1976, not 1986.

5

And it appears that three on that list “got the chair”, so the answer is yes.

6

Your broader point, that black killers of white victims are far more likely to receive death sentences than with other race combinations, is supported by this study, though.

7

Kurt Vonnegut has pointed out in several of his novels that the city of Indianapolis was the first to hang a white man for killing an Indian. I don’t recall him saying when this occurred, though.

8

Thanks for the info! Is there any way to tell how many of the 20 were not mass murderer or serial killer types, ala T. Mcveigh & G. Heidnik? In other words, are any of these examples ones where the executed killed only one person, who was black?

9

Gaskins - who was convicted and excuted only for killing a victim who was black person - was a mass murderer (He claimed to have killed 100 people - unverified) but Kermit White only killed Whelette Collins, (a 19-20 year old, reports vary, black cheerleader) cite

Which says
Smith was the 260th person executed since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstituted the death penalty in 1976. Of the 260, he is the second white executed for killing a black.

10

Look over Fear Itself’s list. It contains both the number and race of victims. Only four of those were multiple murders. (And one of those four had black-only victims).

11

Interesting! Which now brings up the question, does this mean that it is less common for whites to kill blacks than blacks to killk whites, or that the US law system punishes blacks disproportionately?

12

Ignore my last question, ElvisL1ves read my mind and answered before I asked it :slight_smile:

13

I think that *Jeane Poutine * is asking a good question here- were there any people, who despite what they were convicted of, were executed when their only known murder was of a black person?

So start with **Fear itself’s ** excellent list – all these folks were white men executed at least partially for killing a black person (I missed 1 - not sure who) My Source

On that list those executed that authorities knew certainly killed people of other races (11)
Gaskins, McVay, Grasso, Stafford, Roberts, Atkins, Payne, Heidnick, Johnson, Hayes, Downs

On that list those who were executed solely because their only known crime was killing a black person 7
Kermit Smith, Robert O’Neal (in jail for crimes against others BUT executed only for gang-murder in jail of a black inmate), Norman Lee Newsted, Thomas Strickler, Arnold/Path (2 white cousins, same murder, carved KKK into murdered black hitchhikers victim chest), Hedrick

1 I am not sure
Thomas Beaver

14

They’re not dead yet, but both Lawrence Russel Brewer and John William King were sentenced to death for the dragging death of James Byrd, Jr. in Jasper, Texas. The third suspect, Shawn Allen Berry, was sentenced to life in prison.