Donald DeMag

Donald DeMag (December 15, 1922 -- December 8, 1954) was the last person executed by Vermont.

Life

Donald Edward DeMag was born in Burlington, Vermont on December 15, 1922.[1]

Prior to his death sentence, DeMag had been sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of murder, and had escaped and been recaptured while trying to enter Canada.[2]

In 1952, DeMag and fellow-prisoner Francis Blair escaped from the state prison in Windsor by crashing a laundry truck through the front gates.[3]

While on the run, DeMag and Blair had attacked Elizabeth Weatherup and her husband in Springfield, Vermont. DeMag and Blair beat the couple with a lead pipe as they attempted to rob them. Weatherup died of her injuries. Two days after their escape, DeMag and Blair were recaptured.[4] They were tried for first-degree murder, convicted and sentenced to death by electric chair.[5]

Blair and DeMag were both executed by electric chair. Blair was executed on February 8, 1954.[6]

Death and burial

DeMag was executed at the prison in Windsor on December 8, 1954.[7] He was buried at Holy Family Cemetery in Essex Junction, Vermont.[8][9]

Later death penalty case

Although DeMag was the last person executed by Vermont, he was not the last person to be sentenced to death by a Vermont court. Lionel Goyet, a soldier who was Absent Without Leave for the fifth time, robbed and killed a farmhand, and was sentenced to death in 1957.[10] His sentence was commuted six months later,[11] and Goyet was conditionally pardoned in 1969.[12] He had no further problems with the law, and died in 1980.[13]

The death penalty was effectively abolished by Vermont in 1965. It remained as a possible sentence if a defendant was convicted of murdering a prison employee or law enforcement officer, but was never used. As a result, the possibility of a death sentence in such cases was removed from state statutes by the Vermont General Assembly in 1987.[14]

References

  1. ↑ Vermont Birth Records, 1909-2008, entry for Donald Edward DeMag, retrieved February 4, 2014
  2. ↑ Associated Press, Troy Record, Escaped Vermont Lifer Seized at Border, August 31, 1950
  3. ↑ Associated Press, Portsmouth Herald, Posse and Bloodhounds Comb Woods for Fugitives, July 31, 1952
  4. ↑ Associated Press, Atchison Daily Globe, Capture two Convicts in Vermont Manhunt, August 3, 1952
  5. ↑ Associated Press, Nashua Telegraph, Will Appeal DeMag Murder Conviction, December 21, 1953
  6. ↑ United Press International, Stars and Stripes, Vermont Executes Killer of Woman, February 11, 1954
  7. ↑ Associated Press, Bridgeport Telegram, Murderer Dies in Vermont Electric Chair, December 9, 1954
  8. ↑ Vermont Death Records, 1909-2008, entry for Donald Edward Demag, retrieved February 4, 2014
  9. ↑ Donald DeMag at Find a Grave, retrieved February 4, 2014
  10. ↑ Associated Press, Newport Daily News, To Die in Chair, May 8, 1957
  11. ↑ North Adams Transcript, Goyet's Death Term Commuted to Life, November 4, 1957
  12. ↑ United Press International, Bennington Banner, Christmas Pardons for Three, December 16, 1969
  13. ↑ Wilson Ring, Associated Press, Boston Globe, 50 Years Later, Vt. Revisits Executions, May 1, 2005
  14. ↑ ProCon.org, State Death penalty Laws, retrieved February 4, 2014

See also


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