On May 3, 1946, a seventeen-year-old boy was scheduled to die by the electric chair inside of a tiny red brick jail in picturesque St. Martinsville, Louisiana. Young Willie Francis had been charged with the murder of a local pharmacist. The electric chair-three hundred pounds of oak and metal- had been dubbed Gruesome Gertie and was moved from one jailhouse to another throughout the state of Louisiana. The switch would be thrown at 12:08 P. M. , but Willie Francis did not die. Miraculously, having survived this less than cordial encounter with death, Willie was soon informed that the state would try to kill him again in six days. Letters began pouring into St. Martinsville from across the country-Americans of all colors and classes were transfixed by the fate of this young man. A Cajun lawyer just returned from WWII, Bertrand DeBlanc would take on Willies case-in the face of overwhelming local resistance. DeBlanc would argue the case all the way from the Bayou to the U. S. Supreme Court. In deciding Willies fate the courts and the country would be forced to ask questions about capital punishment that remain unresolved today.
- ISBN10 046500265X
- ISBN13 9780465002658
- Publish Date 1 April 2008
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 15 May 2010
- Publish Country US
- Publisher INGRAM PUBLISHER SERVICES US
- Imprint Basic Civitas Books
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 400
- Language English