John Gordon (1815 – February 14, 1845) was the last person

executed Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

. His conviction and execution have been ascribed by researchers to anti-

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and anti-

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

immigrant Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

bias.McKay, Scott
"Judge's old notes shed light on last execution in R.I."
''

Providence Journal ''The Providence Journal'', colloquially known as the ''ProJo'', is a daily newspaper serving the metropolitan area of Providence, Rhode Island, and is the largest newspaper in Rhode Island. The newspaper was first published in 1829. The newspape ...

''. May 25, 2008. As a result, he was posthumously pardoned in 2011. In 1844, Gordon was tried and convicted for the December 31, 1843, beating

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 ...

Amasa Sprague Amasa Sprague (April 10, 1798 – December 31, 1843) was an American businessman and politician from Rhode Island. He co-founded the A & W Sprague textile firm with his brother William Sprague III. He was murdered on New Year's Eve, 1843. Business ...

, a Cranston

textile Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

factory owner. Sprague was a member of a prominent Rhode Island family. His brother

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

was a

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. Six months before his murder, Amasa Sprague had used his family's political influence to have Cranston resident Nicholas Gordon's

liquor license A liquor license (or liquor licence in most forms of Commonwealth English) is a governmentally issued permit to sell, manufacture, store, or otherwise use alcoholic beverages. Canada In Canada, liquor licences are issued by the legal authority ...

removed by the city council. (Sprague's employees were habitually getting drunk at Gordon's premises.) Nicholas Gordon and his brother John were

immigrants from

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. Nicholas, John and William Gordon (another brother) were all tried for murder, but only John was convicted, a conviction based on contradictory circumstantial evidence. William was found not guilty and in Nicholas's case, held after John's execution, the

jury A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence and render an impartiality, impartial verdict (a Question of fact, finding of fact on a question) officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a sentence (law), penalty o ...

was

hung Hung may refer to: People * Hung (surname), various Chinese surnames * Hùng king, a king of Vietnam People with the given name Hung include: * Hung Huynh, Vietnamese-American chef, winner of the third season of the television show ''Top Chef'' ...

. John Gordon was executed by

hanging Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging i ...

in the state jail in

Providence Providence often refers to: * Providentia, the divine personification of foresight in ancient Roman religion * Divine providence, divinely ordained events and outcomes in Christianity * Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island in the ...

. The court justices, which included Justice

Job Durfee Job Durfee (September 20, 1790 – July 26, 1847) was a politician and jurist from Rhode Island. Born at Tiverton, he graduated from Brown University in 1813 and was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Tiverton. He was a member of the ...

, that were involved in all three trials acted as both trial judges and the court of final appeal.Hoffman, Charles G. and Tess Hoffmann (1998). ''Brotherly Love: Murder and the Politics of Prejudice in Nineteenth-Century Rhode Island''. Boston:

University of Massachusetts Press The University of Massachusetts Press is a university press that is part of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The press was founded in 1963, publishing scholarly books and non-fiction. The press imprint is overseen by an interdisciplinar ...

. . Included in jury instructions, Durfee "told the jurors to give greater weight to Yankee witnesses than Irish witnesses." Seven years after Gordon's execution, Rhode Island abolished the death penalty. Although it was reintroduced in 1872, no executions took place before capital punishment was abolished again by the state in 1984. In the 1990s, when the

Rhode Island General Assembly The State of Rhode Island General Assembly is the state legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. A bicameral body, it is composed of the lower house, lower Rhode Island House of Representatives with 75 re ...

considered reinstating the death penalty, Gordon's case has been used by those against reinstatement to demonstrate the dangers of capital punishment. In 2011, playwright Ken Dooley wrote and produced a stage play “The Murder Trial of John Gordon”. It ran 21 times at the Park Theater in Cranston, RI. Following his attending the play, State Representative Peter Martin istrict 75 - Newportintroduced a resolution requesting that then Governor Lincoln Chafee grant a posthumous pardon to Gordon based on evidence that he, Gordon, had been subjected to a prejudiced trial. Following passing of the resolution by the Rhode Island General Assembly, Governor

Lincoln Chafee Lincoln Davenport Chafee ( ; born March 26, 1953) is an American politician. He was mayor of Warwick, Rhode Island from 1993 to 1999, a United States Senator from 1999 to 2007, and the 74th Governor of Rhode Island from 2011 to 2015. He was a m ...

pardoned Gordon on June 29, 2011.Erika Niedowski
"RI governor pardons Irish man hanged in 1845"

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, 2011-06-29. The legislation was sponsored in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

by Peter F. Martin and in the

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by Michael McCaffrey. Chafee signed the proclamation of pardon at the Old State House, where Gordon's trial had taken place more than 150 years before. In September 2014,

Enda Kenny Enda Kenny (born 24 April 1951) is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as Taoiseach from 2011 to 2017, Leader of Fine Gael from 2002 to 2017, Minister for Defence from May to July 2014 and 2016 to 2017, Leader of the Opposition from ...

, the

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of Ireland, visited the Rhode Island Irish Famine Memorial and in a speech praised Martin and Chafee for pardoning Gordon.Simon Carswell
"Government in talks to set up direct flight between Shannon and Rhode Island"
''

Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

'', 24 September 2014.

Notes

References

*Paul Caranci, ''The Hanging and Redemption of John Gordon'' (History Press, 2013) *Patrick T. Conley, "The Origins of the Governor's Pardoning Power" in ''People, Places, Laws and Lore of the Ocean State'' (Rhode Island Publications Society, 2012). {{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, John 1845 deaths 19th-century executions by the United States 19th-century executions of American people Irish people executed abroad Executed Irish people People executed by Rhode Island by hanging People executed for murder 19th-century Irish people People convicted of murder by Rhode Island Irish emigrants to the United States (before 1923) People from Cranston, Rhode Island Recipients of American gubernatorial pardons People who have received posthumous pardons People wrongfully convicted of murder Wrongful executions 1843 murders in the United States 1815 births

See also

Notes

References