Research


Scope and Content Note

This series consists of 250 files for inmates executed for capital crimes. These are not complete case files of inmates, but administrative files pertinent to their actual executions. Each file typically contains identifying documents; correspondence; blotter records; notices of stays and respites of execution; copies of court orders; and copies of other legal documents.

Files may also contain newspaper clippings concerning the inmate's criminal offense, trial, and subsequent execution; carbon copies of the inmate's social and criminal history narratives; and other administrative records of the inmate's incarceration (visitation records, etc.). Almost all case files document executions carried out by electrocution at Sing Sing Prison; scattered files relate to inmates executed in other states.