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The US Supreme Court has declared that sentencing individuals under 18 to death is both cruel and unusual. However, the United States has a complex history involving the execution of juveniles, with numerous lesser-known cases highlighting this controversial issue. At one time, such sentences were a common practice in the justice system.
10. Virginia Christian
On August 16, 1912, Virginia Christian, a 16-year-old servant, was executed in the electric chair for the murder of her employer, Ida Belote. The crime followed accusations of Christian stealing a gold locket. She remains the only woman to have been executed in Virginia's history.
During this period, Jim Crow laws and racial purity statutes were enforced, intensifying anti-black sentiment. African Americans were often depicted as uncivilized and subhuman, a portrayal that was echoed in the media's depiction of Christian, referred to as “The Negress.”
Despite her confession, Christian was denied a fair trial. Virginia's laws prohibited the imprisonment and execution of individuals under 17, but this protection did not extend to African Americans.
Christian was barred from testifying in her own defense, as authorities feared it might incite violence, reminiscent of the Hillsville, Virginia courtroom shoot-out that left five dead. To prevent potential mob unrest, her trial was expedited, and she was executed in the electric chair just one day after turning 17.
9. Plymouth Colony, 1642
In 1642, Plymouth Colony witnessed one of the strangest cases of sexual misconduct when Thomas Graunger, a Native American aged around 16 or 17, was convicted of “buggery.” His crimes involved acts of bestiality with a mare, a cow, two goats, five sheep, two calves, and a turkey. His disturbing behavior was only discovered when someone accidentally caught him in the act with the mare.
Graunger openly admitted to the court his inappropriate relationships with all 12 animals. He was charged, found guilty, and sentenced to death by hanging. On September 8, 1642, his execution took place, during which “the mare, followed by the cow and the other smaller animals, were slaughtered in his presence, as dictated by the law in Leviticus xx. 15.”
The remains of the animals were disposed of in a communal grave, witnessed by onlookers. Once the animals were killed and buried, Graunger was taken to the gallows and hanged.
8. A History of Violence
On July 2, 1977, Louisiana state trooper Donald Cleveland stopped Dalton Prejean, 17, and his brother Joseph. As the officer tried to search Joseph, Dalton approached from behind and shot him twice in the head.
During the trial, Dalton expressed remorse, garnering widespread sympathy. Supporters argued that the African American teenager, tried by an all-white jury, did not receive a fair trial. Additionally, reports revealed that Dalton suffered from mental challenges due to brain damage caused by years of child abuse.
Despite the defense's claims, Dalton Prejean’s killing of trooper Cleveland was not his first violent act. He had a criminal history, having committed his first murder at the age of 14 when he killed a taxi driver.
For that initial crime, he was sentenced to 30 months in a juvenile reform facility. However, his second offense led to a harsher punishment. For the murder of Cleveland, Dalton was sentenced to death and executed in Louisiana's electric chair in 1990.
7. Colonial Albany, 1793
Shortly after midnight on November 17, 1793, a fire erupted at the residence of Senator Leonard Gansevoort in colonial Albany, New York. While no lives were lost, the blaze devastated several blocks, destroying 26 homes and causing $250,000 in damages.
Albany's slave owners were already on edge due to a series of uprisings and arson attacks in New York, as well as the violent Haitian rebellion of 1791. When a young male slave named “Pomp” (Pompey) was accused of deliberately starting the fire, his prospects seemed grim.
As reported in 1793, Pomp was approached by two white men who harbored a grudge against Senator Gansevoort. They offered him a watch in exchange for setting the fire. Pomp accepted the deal and recruited two young slave girls, Dinah and Bet, both under 14, to assist him.
After their arrest, the two girls confessed, while Pomp denied any involvement. Despite their pleas, all three were found guilty and sentenced to death. Governor DeWitt Clinton attempted to delay the executions but was unsuccessful.
In early 1794, the three teenagers were executed by hanging in front of a rowdy, intoxicated crowd. The two white men who had approached Pomp were never identified, and no further investigation into the matter took place.
6. Burned Alive
At the age of 17, Scott Hain, along with 21-year-old Robert Wayne Lambert, kidnapped Michael Houghton and Laura Sanders outside a bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After stealing $565 from the two restaurant coworkers, they forced them into a car trunk and set the vehicle on fire, burning them alive.
Hours later, Hain and Lambert returned to the crime scene to inspect the charred remains of their victims. Both were later convicted and sentenced to death for their heinous actions.
Since Hain was only 17 during the murders, his case attracted global attention, with widespread criticism of his death sentence. Sixteen years after the double homicide, Hain was executed shortly after the US Supreme Court denied his final appeal for a stay of execution.
Until his execution, Hain insisted he was innocent, arguing that he was a minor and under Lambert’s influence. Lambert, still on death row, has attempted to overturn his death sentence, citing the Supreme Court’s ruling that prohibits executing individuals with intellectual disabilities.
5. Leonard Shockley
On January 16, 1958, Leonard Shockley, 16, and his older brother Harold, 22, found themselves in need of money in Boxiron, Maryland. They decided to rob a local general store owned by 39-year-old Sarah Hearne, believing she would be alone at the time.
Their assumption proved correct. Once inside, the brothers launched a brutal attack on the defenseless mother of three. Without hesitation, Leonard, who had known Hearne for years, stabbed her in the back with a large hunting knife. He continued to stab her multiple times before cutting her throat.
Shortly after, customer Clarence Bishop arrived at the scene and fled in terror. Bishop, a respected African American in the community, provided a detailed description of the Shockley brothers and their vehicle. Despite the perpetrators being black, the most valuable leads came from the black community, who were deeply angered by the murder of a white woman they held in high regard.
Ultimately, Harold received a life sentence, while Leonard was executed in a Maryland gas chamber on April 10, 1959. It would be four decades before the United States executed another individual for a crime committed at the age of 16.
4. Sean Sellers
Forty years after Leonard Shockley’s execution, Sean Sellers was executed for multiple murders he committed at 16. Sellers, a former Satan worshiper who engaged in rituals involving drinking his own blood, killed a convenience store clerk simply to experience “what it felt like.”
Six months later, Sellers—wearing only black underwear—shot his parents while they slept. This act ultimately led to the 16-year-old being sentenced to death, sparking global demands for mercy. Media from England, France, Germany, and beyond flocked to Oklahoma to cover the execution, while prominent figures like Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu of South Africa appealed for leniency.
Opponents urged the courts to spare Sellers’s life, citing his age at the time of the murders and a psychiatrist’s finding that he suffered from multiple personality disorder. However, their pleas were ignored by the governor. After enjoying Chinese food as his final meal, Sellers, who had since become a born-again Christian, was executed by lethal injection on February 4, 1999.
3. 10-Year-Old Murderer
On November 25, 1872, William Feigel, a Swedish immigrant, headed toward Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, passing through Tahlequah, the capital of the Cherokee Nation. The next day, his severely beaten body was found on a dirt road. His boots, hat, coat, shirt, and any money he carried were missing.
Since Feigel was a foreigner with no relatives in the United States, his body remained unclaimed, and the murder went unsolved until 1884, when Deputy Marshal Andrews reopened the case. After gathering sufficient evidence, Andrews secured arrest warrants for James Arcene and William Parchmeal.
Arcene, a Native American who was just 10 years old at the time of the murder, admitted to shooting and beating Feigel after being persuaded by Parchmeal, the mastermind behind the robbery and killing. The pair, who earned only 25 cents for their horrific act, were eventually sentenced to death by hanging on June 26, 1885.
Although Arcene was executed as an adult at the Fort Smith gallows, he remains the youngest person in U.S. history to be sentenced to death for a crime committed 13 years prior.
2. The Prison Gallows
On June 14, 1915, 13-year-old Joe Persons from Butts County, Georgia, raped and murdered an eight-year-old girl whose name was withheld from public records. The crime was described as so brutal that even the boy’s father supported his execution.
Following legal protocol in Jackson, Persons was taken from his cell to the prison courtyard, where the gallows were prepared. According to newspaper records from September 26, 1915, Persons, described as “immature and underdeveloped,” weighed only 29 kilograms (65 lb), prompting officials to consider adding weights to his body to ensure a proper execution.
The details of what followed remain unclear, but it is certain that Persons lost his life on that fateful autumn day.
1. James Terry Roach
In October 1977, Tommy Taylor, 17, and Carlotta Hartness, 14, were sitting in a parked car near their South Carolina high school when they were ambushed by two men. Taylor was shot in the face, while Hartness was taken to the woods, where she was raped, shot, and brutally mutilated. Despite each blaming the other, James Terry Roach, 17, and Joseph Carl Shaw, 22, were both convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in the electric chair.
Roach’s defense attorney opposed the death penalty, highlighting his client’s young age and his diagnosis of Huntington’s chorea, a degenerative genetic disorder affecting mental faculties. Even former President Jimmy Carter and Mother Teresa appealed for a stay of execution. During an interview with Ted Koppel, Roach described his sentence as “mean and cruel.”
Ultimately, South Carolina Governor Richard W. Riley rejected all appeals for mercy. Roach was executed with two electric shocks in January 1986. His accomplice, Shaw, had been put to death the year before.
