Virginia Christian
Virginia Christian (born 1895, died August 16, 1912) was an African-American maid and the last female juvenile offender executed in the United States[1]. She was also the only female juvenile executed via electric chair and, to date, the last woman executed by the state of Virginia[2].
Christian was convicted for the murder of her white employer Ida Belote (51 years old) on March 1, 1912[3]. She confessed shortly after she was arrested.
She was quickly convicted and sentenced to death. Governor William Hodges Mann said this was the most sinister murder in the state's history and declined to commute the death sentence, despite a plea from Virginia's mother, Charlotte Christian, who wrote to him:
My dear Mr. Governor: Please forgive me for bothering you ... I have been paralyzed for more than three years and I could not look after Gennie as I wants to. I know she done an awful wicked thing when she killed Miss Belote and I hear that people at the penitentiary wants to kill her. But I am praying night and day on my knees to God that he will soften your heart. If you only save my child who is so little, God will bless you forever.[4].
Christian was electrocuted in the state prison in Richmond. She was 17 years old. The paper reported that her body was to be turned over to the state medical school, because her parents did not have the money to transport the body from Richmond.