Charles Hudspeth (a.k.a. Andrew J. "Andy" Hudspeth) was an American man convicted of murder in
Marion County, Arkansas, in 1887.
On December 30, 1892, he was
hanged
Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...
for the murder. His alleged victim was purportedly later found to be alive.
[Malloy, Daniel (8 February 2009]
Prosecutors don't always need a body as evidence
''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette''. Retrieved June 8, 2012.
George Watkins and his wife, Rebecca, moved in 1886 from Kansas to
Marion County, Arkansas, where Rebecca apparently soon became intimately involved with Charles Hudspeth. The following year, Watkins disappeared.
Rebecca and Hudspeth were arrested and, after lengthy interrogation, Rebecca allegedly made a statement accusing Hudspeth of murdering Watkins to get him out of the way so they could be married. She was charged as an accessory to murder and died in custody while awaiting trial in 1888.
Based on Rebecca's testimony, Hudspeth was convicted and sentenced to death, but the Arkansas Supreme Court set aside the conviction on the ground that the trial judge, R. H. Powell, had improperly barred testimony regarding Rebecca's alleged lack of good character. Hudspeth v. State, 50 Ark. 534 (1888).
Upon retrial, Hudspeth was again convicted and again sentenced to death. He was hanged at
Harrison, Arkansas
The city of Harrison is the county seat of Boone County, Arkansas, United States. It is named after Marcus LaRue Harrison, a surveyor who laid out the city along Crooked Creek (Arkansas), Crooked Creek at Stifler Springs. According to 2019 Cen ...
, on December 30, 1892. In June 1893, Hudspeth's lawyer, W. F. Pace, allegedly located Watkins alive and well in Kansas, albeit this claim was never proven and is disputed.
See also
*
List of wrongful convictions in the United States
This list of wrongful convictions in the United States includes people who have been legally exonerated, including people whose convictions have been overturned or vacated, and who have not been retried because the charges were dismissed by the s ...
References
1892 deaths
19th-century executions by the United States
19th-century executions of American people
American people executed for murder
People from Marion County, Arkansas
Year of birth unknown
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People convicted of murder by Arkansas
People executed by Arkansas by hanging