Name Eddie Mays Criminal penalty Capital punishment | Convictions Murder | |
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Born 1928/1929 North Carolina, USA Criminal status Executed by electrocution
August 15, 1963 Died August 15, 1963, Sing Sing, Ossining, New York, United States | ||
Eddie Lee Mays (c. 1929 – August 15, 1963) was the last person to be executed by the State of New York. He was convicted of first degree murder and robbery in 1962. Mays was 34 years old at the time of execution.
Biography
Mays, an African-American from North Carolina, was sentenced to death for killing a customer during a robbery at a bar in New York. Mays and two accomplices held up the Friendly Tavern, at 1403 Fifth Avenue in East Harlem on March 23, 1961. Mays ordered the owner and the patrons to put their cash on the bar. However 31-year-old Maria Marini, who witnesses said was too slow to comply, enraged Mays. After opening her purse and finding it empty, he put a .38 caliber revolver to her temple and pulled the trigger. The trial heard he had been part of a gang who had committed 52 robberies in six weeks. Mays told reporters he would rather "fry" than spend his life in prison.
Mays would become the last person to be executed by "Old Sparky", New York State's electric chair at Sing Sing prison. The State Electrician was Dow Hover. The electric chair had been the sole method of execution in the State since 1914 (hanging had been abolished in 1890). In 1965 the State of New York repealed the death penalty.