Results 1 to 2 of 2

Thread: North Dakota Capital Punishment History

  1. #1
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217

    North Dakota Capital Punishment History

    The death penalty: N.D. v. U.S.

    While more inmates were executed in the United States in 1999 than in any other year since the early 1950s, the last legal execution in North Dakota took place in 1905. Apparently, more people have been lynched here than have been legally executed.

    Dakota Territory established the death penalty in 1865.(2) The penalty was carried into North Dakota law at statehood. In 1915, the penalty was restricted to persons convicted of committing a first degree murder while already under a life sentence for first degree murder.(3) The death penalty was abolished when North Dakota's new criminal code became effective, July 1, 1975.(4)

    According to historian Frank E. Vyzralek,(5) only one legal execution took place in the northern half of Dakota Territory—in Grand Forks in 1885. Seven legal executions took place after statehood. The last one—John Rooney in 1905—was the first to take place inside the prison walls at Bismarck. Previous executions had taken place in the counties, usually next to the courthouse.

    According to Vyzralek,(6) three lynchings took place in the northern half of Dakota Territory, and six took place in North Dakota after statehood. The last lynching was in McKenzie County in 1931.

    The only triple lynching took place in Emmons County in 1897, and according to Vyzralek, it followed the North Dakota Supreme Court's reversal of the conviction of one of the three.(7)

    The 1995 North Dakota legislature considered reinstituting the death penalty. The bill was defeated, following arguments based on morality and economics.

    http://www.ndcourts.com/court/news/deathpenalty.htm

  2. #2
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Fairview history
    The last lynching in North Dakota



    McKenzie County Sheriff Syvert Thompson and Deputy Peter Hallan tried to stop the lynch mob.

    “Murder Charge Filed Against Charles and James Bannon” was the headline of the Fairview News, Thursday, Dec. 11, 1930.

    Sheriff A. C. Jacobson arrested Charles Bannon, Saturday, Nov. 29, 1930, for embezzling four hogs from the Haven Farm. Bannon, 22, a hired hand, said he was managing and taking care of the farm for Mr. and Mrs. Albert Haven, who had moved to Colton, Ore. Jacobson took Bannon to the Williston Jail, believing Bannon would be safer there than in the jail at Schafer.

    The Haven family lived on a farm about a mile north of Schafer (county seat at the time), located east of Watford City. The family had six members: Albert, 50; Lulia, 3; Daniel, 18; Leland, 14; Charles, 2; and Mary, 2 months.

    After trying to find the Haven family in Colton, the authorities started working on the theory of foul play. A search of the Haven farm resulted in finding different body parts in various locations. Parts of Charles were found in a rubbish or manure pile. Albert, Daniel and Leland dismembered bodies were found in a straw pile. After looking closer in a hole they dug, the bodies of Lulia and Mary were also spotted. The rest of Mary and Charles were found in a cave of an old Indian burial ground where Charles had played as a boy.

    Bannon confessed three different times with three varying confessions to killing the Haven family.

    On Dec. 12, Bannon gave a statement to a Deputy Sheriff in which he admitted involvement in killing the Haven family but claimed a stranger acted as instigator.

    The next day, Bannon admitted to killing the Haven family after he killed Daniel accidentally. Bannon suggested he was forced to kill Leland, Lulia and Albert because they tried to kill him after he shot Daniel.

    In Bannon’s third confession, he admitted to killing the rest of the family after he shot Daniel accidentally. Bannon did not claim that he acted in self-defense when he killed the other members of the family. Instead, he said he killed them because he was scared.

    In January, Charles Bannon was taken back to McKenzie County for a court appearance since the murders took place there and he had been charged for murder there. Local lore states that the citizens of Schaffer were convinced Bannon would be taken back to Williston after court and that he may not be convicted of the murders. And even if convicted, North Dakota didn’t have a death penalty at the time.

    Bannon was held in custody in the old stone jailhouse in Schafer, along with his father James Bannon and a confessed wheat thief, Fred Makie. James Bannon was also implicated in the murders; he was said to have been in Oregon looking for the Haven family to prove his son’s innocence.

    After midnight on January 29, 1931, men from various parts of the county began to gather in Schafer. A crowd of about 75 men wearing masks went to the jail and demanded Deputy Peter Hallan open the cell door so they could have Charles Bannon. Hallan refused.

    Lights flickering through his window woke Sheriff Syvert Thompson up. He lived near the jail and went to the scene to investigate. The mob captured the sheriff and led him away from the jail. The men proceeded to break into the jail. It took considerable effort to break down the steel door, and the crowd nearly gave up. Finally the cell door gave way and the crowd seized Charles Bannon. Sheriff Thompson, Deputy Hallan, Fred Makie and James Bannon were locked up in the jail.

    The mob first took Bannon to the Haven farm to “get the truth.” However, Evanson, who had been staying at the farm, stood up to the crowd with a rifle and told them to move on. The mob then took Bannon to the bridge that crossed Cherry Creek a short distance from Schafer.

    The men in black masks tied Bannon’s hands behind his back and placed the hangman’s noose around his neck, the other end of the rope tied to the bridge. Local lore states that the men then hauled Bannon up on the bridge railing. When they lifted Bannon to the bridge railing, the men shouted, “Jump-Jump!”

    Bannon was reported to have said these words, which would be his last: “You boys started this; you will have to finish this.” That is when a man stepped forward and shoved him off the bridge. It was the last lynching in North Dakota.

    Charles Bannon was buried in Riverside Cemetery in Williston. The Haven family was buried in Schafer Cemetery east of Watford City.

    Not one person involved ever implicated himself or anyone else in the hanging of Bannon, for a simple reason: The statute of limitations for murder never runs out.

    EDITOR’S NOTE: Information compiled from the Fairview News and the “End of the Rope” by Dennis Johnson.

    http://www.sidneyherald.com/articles...3776651736.txt

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •