Willie Francis

Epic card · No. 4930

Willie Francis (January 12, 1929 – May 9, 1947) was an American teenager known for surviving an attempted execution by electrocution in the United States. He was 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. Francis was 17 when he survived the first attempt to execute him, as the chair malfunctioned. Following an unsuccessful appeal of his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, he was executed in 1947 at age 18.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Bill Allen, Public domain