User:Ashetoo/sandbox

Will Banks was an African American man who was tried and convicted of the murder of Frank McMillan, and was publicly executed in Ashe County, North Carolina on August 20,1907. From that day until today there have been many local citizens who question the fairness of the trial and even whether Banks was actually executed. . One author, writing several years later, made an assertion that the victim deserved his fate. At trial, one of the two defense attorneys was highly regarded Rufus A. Doughton, who also made the appeal after conviction to the Supreme Court of North Carolina. A large crowd on onlookers was in attendance when Banks spoke at length from the scaffold about the unfairness of his trial