Executed
James M. W. Stone
James M. W. Stone, a Black man, was hanged on April 2, 1880, at the District jail on Nineteenth Street Southeast in Washington, where he was the first person executed. The Washington Herald, writing in January 1920, reported that the rope broke during his hanging and cited that account in arguing for electrocution instead of hanging.
Cause of death, as reported: Executed by the state