Background and first murder Jimmy Lee Gray was born in 1949 in Whittier, California. At the age of 18, Jimmy murdered hisgirlfriend Elda Louise Prince. 16 year old Elda was a sophomore at Parker High School in Parker, Arizona, where Jimmy was also a student and a school friend of Elda’s brother, 18 year old … Read more
Execution Details On Tuesday, April 21, 1992, 39-year-old Robert Alton Harris was put to death in the gas chamber at San Quentin Prison in California’s first execution in 25 years. He had been sentenced to die for the particularly brutal killing of two teenage boys in 1978, whose car he had hijacked for use in … Read more
Early Life and Troubled Childhood Barbara Graham was born in 1923 in Oakland, California. She had a difficult and miserable childhood (a familiar story?). Her mother was sent to a reformatory when Barbara was only two years old, so she was raised by neighbors and received little education. Teenage Years and Early Adulthood As a … Read more
Background The purpose of this article is to invite you, the reader, to think about your personal attitude to the death penalty, rather than tell you what to think—hence why it asks a lot of questions. Facts and statistics provided are from reliable sources such as the US Bureau of Justice. In a democratic society, … Read more
Current Use of the Death Penalty Worldwide In the 21st century, very few countries still use the death penalty as a tool of state policy to attempt to deter their populace from certain acts. Probably the most notable exception to this is the totalitarian regime in North Korea. There have been reports of people being … Read more
