Charles Laplace was hanged in a Basseterre prison on this date in 2008, for stabbing his wife to death. It’s the most recent execution carried out in the Caribbean nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis and it drew the ire of human rights advocates because it was carried out before Laplace could exercise his appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. That had also been the case with Saint Kitts and Nevis’s last previous execution, in 1998.
Capital punishment does remain on the books for the small (pop. 52,000) Commonwealth nation.
On this day..
- 1890: Elmer Sharkey, wretched matricide
- 1835: Patrick O'Brien, Francis Spaight apprentice boy
- 1919: Frank Ezell and Brown Ezell, "Atticus Finch" clients
- 1750: John Young, resisting
- 1694: James Whitney, highwayman
- 1475: Louis de Luxembourg, Count of Saint-Pol
- 1684: Jane Voss, narrow escapee
- 1932: Yoon Bong-Gil, nationalist assassin
- 1909: Valgrand in place of Fantomas
- 1862: An unknown Confederate deserter
- 1922: Seven Republican guerrillas in the Curragh of Kildare
- 1948: Amir Sjarifuddin