DePaul Law Review Volume 32 Issue 1 Fall 1982 Article 2 "Slow Dance on the Killing Ground": The Willie Francis Case Revisited Arthur S. Miller Jeffrey H. Bowman Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/law-review Recommended Citation Arthur S. Miller & Jeffrey H. Bowman, "Slow Dance on the Killing Ground": The Willie Francis Case Revisited, 32 DePaul L. Rev. 1 (1982) Available at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/law-review/vol32/iss1/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Law at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in DePaul Law Review by an authorized editor of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. "SLOW DANCE ON THE KILLING GROUND":t THE WILLIE FRANCIS CASE REVISITED tt Arthur S. Miller* and Jeffrey H. Bowman** The time is past in the history of the world when any living man or body of men can be set on a pedestal and decorated with a halo. FELIX FRANKFURTER*** The time is 1946. The place: rural Louisiana. A slim black teenager named Willie Francis was nervous. Understandably so. The State of Louisiana was getting ready to kill him by causing a current of electricity to pass through his shackled body. Strapped in a portable electric chair, a hood was placed over his head, and the electric chair attendant threw the switch, saying in a harsh voice "Goodbye, Willie." The chair didn't work properly; the port- able generator failed to provide enough voltage. Electricity passed through Willie's body, but not enough to kill him.