- Aaron Mitchell
Aaron Mitchell (d. 12 April 1967) was executed in the
gas chamber formurder ing a police officer in Sacramento in 1963. His last words were "I am Jesus Christ." He was 37 years old.Mitchell was the last person to be executed in California before the
Supreme Court of California ruled in 1972 that the death penalty was unconstitutional (theSupreme Court of the United States made a similar ruling later that year). Mitchell was the 194th person to be executed by gassing inCalifornia (1937-1967), and the only person to be executed in that state during the term of GovernorRonald Reagan (1967–1975). Both Reagan and his predecessor had declined clemency. Mitchell's case had been heard twice by the US Supreme Court and twice by the California Supreme Court.After Mitchell, there were no more executions in California until 1992, when
Robert Alton Harris was gassed. (The gas chamber was ruled unconstitutional in California in 1994.)ee also
Capital punishment in California References
* [http://eotd.wordpress.com/2008/04/12/12-april-1967-aaron-mitchell/ WordPress.com]
* [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=YvdKyEJo0osC&pg=PA74&lpg=PA74&dq=%22Aaron+Mitchell%22+death&source=web&ots=X1VcYDTj7t&sig=3eqeOPloZ1lguk8gQcJ-Wzw0fjY&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#PPA74,M1 O'Shea, Kathleen A.; Conrad, Ann Patrick] "Women and the Death Penalty in the United States, 1900-1998" Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999, ISBN 027595952X pp. 74-76
* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,843580,00.html Time Magazine]
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