Tony Chebatoris

Anthony Chebatoris (1898 – July 8, 1938) is the only person who has been executed within the physical boundaries of Michigan since that state abolished the death penalty in 1846. His trial and execution were carried out by the US Federal Government, and thus was beyond the jurisdictional authority of the state to prevent.

Chebatoris's first conviction for a crime was in 1918 for armed robbery in Detroit, and in 1927 he was arrested for violating the Dyer Act in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1928, he went to prison at Marquette for armed robbery.

Murder

In 1937, Chebatoris and fellow prison inmate, Jack Gracy, planned to rob the Chemical State Savings Bank in downtown Midland, Michigan. On September 29, Gracey entered the bank first with a sawed-off shotgun under his coat; Chebatoris followed. Gracey approached bank president Clarence Macomber and shoved the shot gun into his ribs. Macomber and Gracey grappled with the weapon. Chebatoris aimed his revolver at Macomber, wounding him in the shoulder. Paul Bywater, the head teller, came to the front counter to see what the commotion was about. Chebatoris took aim and fired at Bywater, shooting him in the stomach. Chebatoris and Gracy fled the bank in their black two-door Ford. Meanwhile, when Dr. Frank Hardy, a dentist on the second floor of the bank building, heard the gunshots, he used a deer rifle to fire at the getaway car as it sped towards the Benson Street Bridge. One of Hardy's shots hit the driver and the car careened into a parked car along the road,. Chebatoris and Gracey got out of the car and started looking for the shots firing at them. Mistaking Henry Porter, a truck driver from Bay City, Michigan, as a police officer, Chebatoris shot and seriously wounded him. When Gracy tried to commandeer a truck, Hardy shot him in the head, killing him instantly. Then Chebatoris ran along some railroad tracks and tried to get away by stealing a car, occupied by Levi Myer, but was stopped by the Sheriff, Ira Smith.

Trial and execution

Chebatoris was charged with attempted bank robbery, and then murder when Henry Porter died 12 days later from his gunshot wound. His trial was held at Federal Court in Bay City, Judge Arthur J. Tuttle presiding. Chebatoris was found guilty of murder on October 29, 1937, and sentenced to death under the National Bank Robbery Act of 1934.

Because capital punishment in Michigan was abolished in 1846, Governor Frank Murphy tried to get Chebatoris's sentence commuted to life imprisonment. When that failed, he argued the execution should be to another state. Murphy appealed all the way to President Franklin D. Roosevelt after Judge Tuttle refused to change the location of the execution, but it no avail.

Anthony Chebatoris was subsequently hanged at the Federal Correctional Institution, Milan, at dawn, on July 8, 1938.

Apart from its immediate historical significance, the Chebatoris execution remains significant as a reminder of the nature of American federalism. All lands owned or permanently leased by the federal United States (i.e., the federal government), such as national parks and military bases, only appear to be located within a particular state or states. They are, in fact, legally located outside of those states. Yosemite National Park, for example, appears to be located in California; but, legally, it is a separate, federal property that is surrounded by California. Likewise, because the Federal Correctional Institution at Milan, Michigan is federal land, it is legally surrounded by Michigan rather than being within Michigan. Thus, in a purely technical, legal sense, the execution did not happen within Michigan, because it happened on federal land rather than on Michigan soil.

See also

• List of most recent executions by jurisdiction

References

• Files of the Midland Daily News, 1937 and 1938;
• "Butcher's Dozen: Thirteen Famous Michigan Murders," by Lawrence Wakefield; 1991 - ISBN #1878005162
• "The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan: People, Law, and Politics," by David G. Chardavoyne; 2012 - ISBN #978-0-8143-3461-4 (hard cover), #978-0-8143-3720-2 (e-book)

External links

• Tony Chebatoris at Find a Grave