CREATOR:  Broad River Correctional Institution (S.C.)

 

TITLE:  Register of prisoners sentenced to death

 

DATE:  1912-2004

 

VOLUME:  1.00 microfilm reel

 

ARRANGEMENT:  Series arranged numerically by number assigned when prisoner was formally transferred to the Dept. of Corrections for execution of the death sentence.

 

SUMMARY SCOPE NOTE:  This series consists of a register of prisoners transferred to the Dept. of Corrections for execution of the death sentence.  Beginning in 1912, all persons convicted of capital crimes and sentenced to death were to be transported to the State Penitentiary (Central Correctional Institution) in Columbia for death by electrocution.  The original statute required prisoners to be transferred no more than 20 days or less than two days prior to execution date and usually after all appeals had been heard.  Upon transfer to the penitentiary, prisoners were assigned an execution number which was recorded in the register.

 

The register contains the prisoner number, name, date received, date fixed for execution, date of execution, offence, presiding judge, nationality (race recorded here), place of birth, last residence, place of trial, literacy, occupation, age, sex, color, marital status, height, weight, eyes, hair, complexion, scars, stays of execution, and disposition of remains or change in sentence.

 

The register lists entries through 1965, but only 327 prisoners as some prisoners are listed multiple times because they were mistakenly assigned to death row prior to the exhaustion of their appeals.  Of this number, 241 were executed.  The first entry is for William Reed, prisoner number 1, executed 6 August 1912.  Ray L. Young, number 345, was executed 20 April 1962 and is the last person executed in the state prior to a nationwide moratorium on capital punishment instituted the same year.

 

After passage of a new capital punishment statute in 1977 and its acceptance by state and federal courts, executions were resumed in South Carolina in 1985.  Prisoners were assigned to death row after sentencing, but prior to the exhaustion of all appeals.  The entry in the register and assignment of execution number was not recorded until appeals were exhausted.  In 1990, death row and the execution chamber were moved to the Broad River Correctional Institution.  In 1995, inmates were given the choice of electrocution or lethal injection.  The register lists 31 condemned prisoners between 1986 and 2004, all of whom were executed.  The first entry for this period was James Carl Young, number 351 executed on 11 January 1985.  The last recorded execution is Jason Scott Bryan, number 381, on 23 April 2004.

 

281 of the 350 entries prior to 1965 list the prisoner as "negro", but only 11 of the 31 since 1985.  Only two females have been placed on death row in South Carolina and executed since 1912.  Sue Logue, number 248, was executed 15 January 1943 for accessory before the fact of murder.  Rose Marie Stinette, number 276, was executed 17 January 1947 for murder.  The youngest person executed was George Stinney, age 14, who was executed 16 June 1944.  The oldest was Charles T. Smith, age 66, executed 29 November 1946.

 

LOCATION OF ORIGINALS:  The original record is still maintained by the Dept. of Corrections.

 

ASSOCIATED MATERIAL:  S132004 Records of Prisoners Awaiting Execution, 1938-1968, is available in the repository in both hardcopy and on microfilm.

 

LINKING NOTE:   A separate record, entitled Agency history record, has been written for the Department of Corrections, describing the functions and history of the agency.

 

HIERARCHICAL NOTE:  Forms part of the records of the Broad River Correctional Institution of the Department of Corrections.