A HANGING IN DETROIT Stephen Gifford Simmons and the Last Execution Under Michigan Law

Softcover. On September 24, 1830 Stephen Gifford Simmons, who had been convicted of murdering his wife Levana in a jealous and drunken rage, met his death on the gallows in Detroit, then only a small village in the Territory of Michigan. This hanging was the last of the few public executions that took place in Michigan before the state abolished the death penalty in 1846. Simmons's trial and hanging are important not only because of their significance to the study of Michigan's early legal and territorial history, but also because of the 'current' nationwide public debate over the death penalty. In his exhaustively-researched and well-written account of Simmons's historic trial and execution, the author, a legal scholar, has given an authoritative study of this important event. Illus., Appendices, Notes, Bibliog. and Index. 239pp. 8vo. softcover. From the library of true-crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. with no creasing to covers.