Rush Griffin (c. 1916, Mississippi[1][2] – April 5, 1935) was an American convicted killer who was executed at San Quentin prison by the state of California despite the fact that a stay of execution had been issued by a court.[3]
Griffin and Willie Smith had both confessed to the killing of USC Medical School student Laurence Lyon during an attempted robbery November 12, 1934, at "9th and Hemlock"[4] or Ninth and Central.[5] Griffin was sentenced to death and hanged on the San Quentin gallows on April 5, 1935.[6] The execution came to the known as the "error hanging".[7] The clerk responsible for failing to correctly process the appeal documents and court communications for the prison warden was suspended for 30 days without pay.[8]
According to an article by Judge Arthur Alarcón, as a result of Griffin's execution without full due process, a California legislative "committee recommended that legislation be enacted providing for an automatic appeal in all cases where the trial court ordered a sentence of death. As a result, section 1239 was amended to provide that '[w]hen...a judgment of death is rendered, an appeal is automatically taken by the defendant.' The right to an automatic appeal 'imposes a duty upon [the] court 'to make an examination of the complete record of the proceedings had in the trial court, to the end that it be ascertained whether defendant was given a fair trial.' The court 'cannot avoid or abdicate this duty merely because defendant desires to waive the right provided for him'."[9]
References
edit- ^ "Entry for Rush Griffin, 05 Apr 1935". California Death Index, 1905–1939. FamilySearch.
- ^ "Department of Corrections. San Quentin State Prison Records, 1850–1950. ID #R135, California State Archives, Office of the Secretary of State, Sacramento, California". Ancestry.com.
Name: Rush Griffin [George Mathews] - Birth Date: abt 1916 - Birth Place: Mississippi - Record Date: 26 Jan 1935 - Place of Crime: Los Angeles, California, USA a Institution Place: San Quentin, Marin, California, USA - Age: 19 - Prisoner Number: 57188
- ^ Rasmussen, Cecilia (June 17, 2007). "Oversight led to automatic appeals in death row cases". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2024-05-29.
- ^ "Article clipped from California Eagle". California Eagle. November 16, 1934. p. 1. Retrieved 2024-05-29.
- ^ "Student's Slayers Demand New Trial". Los Angeles Evening Citizen News. January 15, 1935. p. 6. Retrieved 2024-05-29.
- ^ "Negro Killer Hanged". Ventura County Star. April 6, 1935. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-05-29.
- ^ "Griffin Plea Note Shown". The Los Angeles Times. April 16, 1935. p. 19. Retrieved 2024-05-29.
- ^ "Prison Data Made Public". The Los Angeles Times. April 16, 1935. p. 28. Retrieved 2024-05-29.
- ^ Alarcón, Arthur L. (May 4, 2007). "Remedies for California's Death Row Deadlock". Southern California Law Review. ISSN 0038-3910. Retrieved 2024-05-29.
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