Draft:Frank Ewing

Merge into an entry on capital punishment or the death pebalty in Tennessee?

Frank Ewing was executed in Tennessee in 1919 for the rape of a white woman. Ewing was African American and had developmental disabilities. He had the mental capacity of a child. He was one of several African Americans executed by electrocution for rape during between 1916 and 1920. A landowner's statement that Ewing had been working for him at the time was rejected. The distance to the home where the alleged rape took place was also an issue.

The first white man electrocuted in Tennessee was killed in 1922.

Before 1913, those convicted of capital crimes in Tennessee were hung. After a two-year hiatus with no executions electrocution was introduced.