Donald Edward DeMag (December 15, 1922 – December 8, 1954) was the last person executed by the U.S. state of Vermont.

Life

Donald Edward DeMag was born in

Burlington, Vermont Burlington is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the seat of Chittenden County. It is located south of the Canada–United States border and south of Montreal. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 44,743. It ...

on December 15, 1922. Prior to his death sentence, DeMag had been sentenced to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

after being convicted of

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

, and had escaped and been recaptured while trying to enter Canada. In 1952, DeMag and fellow-prisoner Francis Blair escaped from the state prison in Windsor by crashing a laundry truck through the front gates. While on the run, DeMag and Blair had attacked Elizabeth Weatherup and her husband in Springfield, Vermont. DeMag and Blair beat the couple with a lead pipe as they attempted to rob them. Weatherup died of her injuries. Two days after their escape, DeMag and Blair were recaptured. They were tried for first-degree murder, convicted and sentenced to death by electric chair. Blair and DeMag were both executed by electric chair. Blair was executed on February 8, 1954.

Death and burial

DeMag was executed at the prison in Windsor on December 8, 1954. He was buried at Holy Family Cemetery in Essex Junction, Vermont.

Later death penalty case

Although DeMag was the last person executed by Vermont, he was not the last person to be sentenced to death by a Vermont court. Lionel Goyet, a soldier who was Absent Without Leave for the fifth time, robbed and killed a farmhand, and was sentenced to death in 1957. His sentence was commuted six months later, and Goyet was conditionally pardoned in 1969. He had no further problems with the law, and died in 1980. The death penalty was effectively abolished by Vermont in 1965. It remained as a possible sentence if a defendant was convicted of murdering a prison employee or law enforcement officer, but was never used. As a result, the possibility of a death sentence in such cases was removed from state statutes by the Vermont General Assembly in 1987.ProCon.org
State Death penalty Laws
retrieved February 4, 2014

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:DeMag, Donald 1922 births 1954 deaths People from Burlington, Vermont 20th-century executions by Vermont American escapees American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment American people executed for murder 20th-century executions of American people People convicted of murder by Vermont Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Vermont People executed by Vermont by electric chair Burials in Vermont Escapees from American detention

Life

Death and burial

Later death penalty case

See also

References