Conecuh County's last legal execution was conducted 89 years ago today

Alabama's electric chair, 'Yellow Mamma'

Today, Jan. 22, marks the anniversary of an almost forgotten chapter in the history of Conecuh County’s courts and local law enforcement. It was 89 years ago, on this day in 1926, that the last legal execution was carried out within the confines of Conecuh County, Ala.

According to the Oct. 1, 1942 edition of The Evergreen Courant, the last legal execution in the history of Conecuh County took place on Jan. 22, 1926 when Conecuh County Sheriff A.M. Barfield carried out the hanging of Murray Rankins from the gallows at the Conecuh County Jail in Evergreen. (In old newspapers, Rankins’ first name was sometimes spelled “Murry,” and his last name was sometimes spelled “Rankin.”)

The Courant reported in early 1926 that Rankins had been convicted of rape during a special session of Conecuh County Circuit Court in December 1925. As soon as Circuit Judge John David Leigh learned of the charges against Rankins, Leigh called a special court session and assembled a grand jury, which investigated the crime and indicted Rankins. Leigh then empanelled a special trial jury, and Rankins was placed on trial.

During his trial, Rankins was represented by two of Conecuh County’s most prominent lawyers, G.O. Dickey and J. Lamar Kelly. The Courant reported that Dickey and Kelly were “two of the ablest lawyers in the county,” and that they “did all they could for the accused” during his trial. In the end, the jury found Rankins guilty of rape, and he was sentenced to death by hanging.

On the afternoon before the hanging, the Rev. W.H. Kamplain “held a religious service” in Rankins’ cell. Afterwards, Kamplain asked Rankins if he was guilty or not, and Rankins “answered that he was not guilty. So far as is known, he slept soundly Thursday night and awakened early Friday morning and enjoyed a hearty breakfast.”

The Courant reported that from the beginning of his trial, Rankins “did not seem to realize his predicament. He talked freely with those allowed to visit him and thanked Sheriff Barfield for his courtesy and kindness, and expressed himself as satisfied with the result of the trial, saying that he had rather be hung than to have been shot to death at the hands of an enraged mob, indicating that he appreciated the spirit of the people of this county in their disposition to allow the law to take its course, and evidently believing if he had not been hung by process of law that he would have met summary punishment at the hands of an enraged citizenship.”

Local officials carried out Rankins’ execution early the next morning. The Courant described the execution as follows – “Promptly at 7:15 o’clock Friday morning Murry was led out of his cell by deputy sheriffs and was met on the gallows by Sheriff Barfield who pinioned his hands and feet, adjusted the black cap and spring the trigger which sent (Rankins) into eternity. As the body shot through the opening, Murry said ‘Goodbye to everybody.’”

Attending physicians pronounced Rankins dead at 7:40 a.m. and his body was turned over to relatives for burial. The Courant pointed out to its readers that the hanging was conducted in front of “proper officers” because state law at the time prohibited hangings from being carried out in public. The paper noted that Rankin denied “his guilt to the last minute.”

Not long after Rankins was put to death, the state outlawed execution by hanging and began using the electric chair. For years, condemned prisoners were put to death at Kilby State Prison at Mt. Meigs. Today, executions are carried out just a short drive from Evergreen at Holman Correctional Facility near Atmore.

In early October 1942, in the early days of World War II, The Courant reported that “several hundred pounds of iron fixtures, parts of the old gallows at the county jail, were released (on Sept. 29) by county officials to the local salvage committee to be placed in the scrap metal now being collected, and which will be used in the manufacture of war materials. So it will continue its mission of death, but in a somewhat different role. Perhaps as a part of a tank, or airplane or maybe a shell or a gun.”