1. Willie Darden was notable for the number of protests and amount of controversy and attention that his case attracted worldwide, as well as the unusually large number of death warrants that he lived through prior to his execution.
18 Facts About Willie Darden
1. 2.
Willie Darden was born in Greene County, North Carolina on June 1,1933.
3.
Willie Darden's family lived in poverty as Darden grew up.
4.
Willie Darden's father was an auto-mechanic, and his great-grandfather had been a slave who was born in Greene County.
5.
Willie Darden's mother was 15 years old at the time of his birth, and two years after he was born, she died while giving birth to another child.
6.
When Willie Darden was a teenager, he started breaking the law, starting after he was caught stealing from a mailbox.
7.
Willie Darden received a 4-year sentence in prison for the bad check.
8.
Willie Darden was arrested later that day for a traffic violation.
9.
Willie Darden, who was black, had an all-white jury at his trial, which took place in January 1974.
10.
The state had intentionally excluded black people from serving on the jury, a practice that was later declared unconstitutional in 1986, and a US Supreme Court Justice, Harry Blackmun, would later declare that the jury selection in Willie Darden's case was improper and violated his constitutional rights.
11.
Willie Darden's lawyers did not challenge the eyewitnesses at the trial.
12.
Nevertheless, on January23,1974, Willie Darden was convicted of the murder and robbery of James Carl Turman.
13.
Willie Darden was received on death row at the Florida State Prison on January29,1974.
14.
Willie Darden had his first execution date set for Wednesday, May23,1979, on the same day as fellow death row inmate John Spenkelink.
15.
However, at the time that the warrant was signed, Willie Darden still had multiple appeals pending.
16.
At the time of his execution, Willie Darden had been on death row for 14years, longer than any other condemned inmate in the United States at the time.
17.
Willie Darden had lived through six separate death warrants, including the one that scheduled his execution for May23,1979.
18.
Willie Darden was executed in Florida's electric chair on March 15,1988.