Horace DeVaughn
Horace DeVaughan, a Black man, was executed by the State of Alabama in the electric chair at Kilby Prison in Montgomery on April 8, 1927, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections. An AL.com column, drawing on S. Thorne Harper's forthcoming book, argues that he was pressured into a confession, that police it describes as sympathetic to the Ku Klux Klan and a defense lawyer with Klan ties shaped his case, and that the jury deliberated for only five minutes before deciding his fate. The column also reports that the electric chair took 11 minutes to kill him.
Cause of death, as reported: Executed by the state. A newspaper column, drawing on S. Thorne Harper's forthcoming book, argues that he was pressured into a confession, had a Klan-linked defense lawyer, that the jury took five minutes to decide, and that the chair took 11 minutes to kill him.
Reported by: Alabama Department of Corrections (the agency that held him); newspaper column drawing on S. Thorne Harper's forthcoming book (reporters).