Donald DeMag

Donald DeMag (December 15, 1922 – December 8, 1954) was the last person executed by the U.S. state of 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]

See also
  • Capital punishment in Vermont
  • List of most recent executions by jurisdiction
  • John Stark Bellamy II (2007). Vintage Vermont Villainies: True Tales of Murder & Mystery from the 19th and 20th Centuries (Woodstock, Vt.: Countryman) ISBN 0-88150-749-0
  • Daniel Allen Hearn (2008). Legal Executions in New England: A comprehensive reference, 1623–1960 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland) ISBN 0-7864-3248-9
  • Wilson Ring, "Death penalty comes full circle in Vt.", Rutland Herald, 2005-05-01

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. Demag buried in Essex Jct, December 11, 1954
  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
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