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A
Hanging in Detroit
Stephen Gifford Simmons and the Last Execution under Michigan
Law
David G. Chardavoyne |
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On
September 24, 1830, Stephen G. Simmons, a fifty-year-old tavern keeper and
farmer, was hanged in Detroit for murdering his wife, Levana Simmons, in
a drunken, jealous rage. Michigan executed only two people during the fifty-year
period, from 1796 to 1846, when the death penalty was legal within its boundaries.
Simmons was the second and last person to be executed under Michigan law.
In A Hanging in Detroit David
G. Chardavoyne vividly evokes not only the crime, trial, and execution of
Simmons, but also the setting and players of the drama, social and legal
customs of the times, and the controversy that arose because of the affair.
Chardavoyne illuminates his account of this important moment in Michigan's
history with many little-known facts, creating a study that is at once an
engrossing story and the first historical examination of the event that
helped bring about the abolition of the death penalty in Michigan.
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"This
benchmark study of the early law-in-court history of Michigan is a must-read
for
all sides on the question of restoring capital punishment in the state." —Avern
Cohn, District Judge, United States District Court
David G. Chardavoyne is an attorney with his own
practice and an adjunct professor at Wayne State University and University
of Detroit Mercy School of Law.
A 2004 Michigan Notable Book
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