List of people executed in the United States in 1956

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sixty-five people, all male, were executed in the United States in 1956, forty-six by electrocution, sixteen by gas chamber, two by firing squad, and one by hanging.[1]

In 2026, the Dallas County Commissioners Court voted unanimously to symbolically exonerate Tommy Lee Walker.[2]

No. Date of execution Name Age of person Gender Ethnicity State Method Ref.
At execution At offense Age difference
1 January 3, 1956 Robert Buchanan 35 34 1 Male Black Mississippi Gas chamber [1]
2 Samuel Wright 20 19 South Carolina Electrocution [3]
3 January 4, 1956 Carrol Dayton Farrar 36 34 2 White Texas [4]
4 January 12, 1956 William Snyder Byers 19 17 New York [5]
5 January 18, 1956 Hurbie Franklin Fairris Jr. 22 20 Oklahoma [6]
6 January 19, 1956 Norman Roye 20 18 Black New York [7]
7 January 20, 1956 Henry Lee Boone 33 32 1 South Carolina [8]
8 January 24, 1956 Johnnie Elwood Gordon 25 23 2 Texas [1]
9 January 26, 1956 John Francis Roche 28 26 White New York [9]
10 January 27, 1956 Walter Philpott 39 38 1 Black Georgia [1]
11 Edgar Keeler 38 37 Mississippi Gas chamber [10]
12 February 17, 1956 O.C. McNair 24 22 2 [1]
13 February 20, 1956 George Anderson 30 27 3 Florida Electrocution
14 Percy Ambrister Jr. 29 26
15 Herman Barwicks 28 2 [11]
16 February 24, 1956 Arthur Ross Brown 30 29 1 White Federal government Gas chamber [12]
17 James Larry Upton 22 20 2 New Mexico Electrocution [13]
18 March 6, 1956 Smith Edward Jordan 27 24 3 Black California Gas chamber [14]
19 Robert Otis Pierce
20 March 15, 1956 Bernard A. Schreiber 19 17 2 White Ohio Electrocution [1]
21 March 30, 1956 Aubrey Williams 29 25 4 Black Georgia [15]
22 April 5, 1956 James Russell 32 Unknown Unknown Mississippi Gas chamber [16]
23 April 6, 1956 Walter Palmer 30 28 2 Louisiana Electrocution [17]
24 April 13, 1956 Michael Timothy Cavanaugh 32 29 3 White California Gas chamber [18]
25 Willie Grady Cochran 37 36 1 Georgia Electrocution [1]
26 April 28, 1956 Charlie Copeland Jr. 24 21 3 Black Florida [19]
27 May 11, 1956 Verne Alfred Braasch 27 6 White Utah Firing squad [20]
28 Melvin LeRoy Sullivan 25 19
29 May 12, 1956 Tommy Lee Walker 21 18 3 Black Texas Electrocution [21]
30 May 14, 1956 William Durant Cole 30 28 2 Pennsylvania [22]
31 June 4, 1956 Harry Earl Gossard 41 39 White [23]
32 June 8, 1956 James Lee Turner 27 26 1 Black Georgia [24]
33 Marion Andrew Washington 29 28 Texas [1]
34 June 15, 1956 Eugene Augustine Morlock 25 24 Native American California Gas chamber [25]
35 June 22, 1956 Dewey Townsel 26 25 Black Mississippi [26]
36 June 28, 1956 Ernest Lee Edwards 22 20 2 White New York Electrocution [27]
37 June 29, 1956 Frederick Mosley 25 23 Black Georgia [28]
38 July 13, 1956 Henry Thomas 32 26 6 California Gas chamber [29]
39 Willie D. Jones 31 30 1 Mississippi [30]
40 Robert S. Conner 30 28 2 North Carolina [31]
41 Walter T. Wilson Ohio Electrocution [1]
42 July 27, 1956 Raymond Fuller Sr. 31 27 4 South Carolina [32]
43 August 20, 1956 Edgar Joseph LaVoie 56 54 2 White Florida [33]
44 August 21, 1956 John Henry Tune 26 22 4 Black New Jersey [34]
45 August 23, 1956 Frank J. Newman 51 49 2 White New York [1]
46 Flaudell Fite 27 26 1 Black Texas [35]
47 August 30, 1956 Joseph E. Reade Jr. White New York [36]
48 Timothy Pierce 23 22 Black Texas [35]
49 August 31, 1956 Harold Byrd 24 23 South Carolina [37]
50 September 7, 1956 Besalirez Martinez 46 44 2 Hispanic Colorado Gas chamber [38]
51 Robert Lee Hopkins 28 28 0 White West Virginia Electrocution [1]
52 September 20, 1956 Joseph Allen 59 54 5 Black Ohio
53 September 21, 1956 Leo Scarber 60 59 1 Arkansas [39]
54 Paul Cooper 48 47 Georgia [40]
55 September 28, 1956 Melvin Jackson 20 17 3 Alabama [41]
56 October 1, 1956 Robert Lee Colson 25 24 1 Florida [42]
57 Moses Lee Dunmore 21 20
58 October 30, 1956 Leonard Lionel Bingham 26 23 3 White Texas [43]
59 November 7, 1956 Mack Drake 35 34 1 Black Mississippi Gas chamber [44]
60 November 8, 1956 Henry Jackson 21 Unknown Unknown [1]
61 November 26, 1956 Samuel Woodrow Tannyhill 27 26 1 White Ohio Electrocution
62 November 30, 1956 James Franklin Bowman 47 45 2 Black Kentucky [45]
63 Charles C. DeBerry 21 19 [46]
64 Robert Sheckles 22 20 [47]
65 December 15, 1956 Artell Bernard Farley Jr. 27 25 White Washington Hanging [48]

Demographics

Executions in recent years

References

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