1995: Franklin Thomas, David Thomas, and Douglas Hamlet, the last in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
February 13th, 2018 Headsman
Early on Monday, February 13 in 1995, the eastern Caribbean nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines carried out a surprise triple hanging.
Brothers Franklin and David Thomas, and Douglas Hamlet, all condemned for murders, went to SVG’s gallows with no more than a weekend’s notice.
Both executions, effected during the brief mid-1990s death penalty spasm in the region, were troubling. In the case of the Thomases, this speedy execution appeared designed to balk the men of their right of appeal to the British Privy Council (SVG is a Commonwealth country). Hamlet, for his part, was noosed by a single questionable eyewitness whose testimony he always disputed. Human rights organizations were “appalled” by the circumstances of the executions, including their near-secrecy.
As of this post’s writing, these are the most recent hangings in SVG’s history.
On this day..
- 1879: Anders Larsson, the first private execution in Sweden - 2020
- 1844: John Knatchbull, moral madman - 2019
- 1818: Samuel Godfrey, American picaro - 2017
- 1945: 59 collaborationists in Bulgaria - 2016
- 1751: John Morrison, Francis McCoy, and Elizabeth Robinson, robbers - 2015
- 1864: Bizoton Affair executions - 2014
- 1859: Father Paul Loc, Vietnamese martyr - 2013
- 2009: Minurul Islam and two friends, for a dowry death - 2012
- 1892: Two Georgian bandits, witnessed by Stalin - 2011
- 1906: William Williams, the last hanged in Minnesota - 2010
- 1542: Kathryn Howard, the rose without a thorn - 2009
- 1942: Patrick Stanley Vaughan Heenan, Japanese spy - 2008
Entry Filed under: 20th Century,Capital Punishment,Common Criminals,Crime,Death Penalty,Execution,Hanged,Milestones,Murder,St. Vincent and the Grenadines,Wrongful Executions
Tags: 1990s, 1996, david thomas, douglas hamlet, february 13, franklin thomas, privy council
This was one of the most surprising reports that I have seen exposed here.