Elmer Bruner
 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
Elmer David Brunner (died April 3, 1959) was a convicted American murderer and was the last defendant executed by West Virginia.
On May 27, 1957, Ruby Miller was killed with the claw-end of a hammer in Huntington, West Virginia during a burglary of her home. Brunner was arrested and charged with first degree murder. Brunner was convicted in July 1957 and was sentenced to death by electric chair.
Brunner's case was appealed twice to the Supreme Court of West Virginia and once to the United States Supreme Court, but all of his appeals were rejected. He was executed on April 3, 1959, by electrocution in "Old Sparky", the electric chair in the West Virginia State Penitentiary escorted by police officer John Kapp[citation needed] to Moundsville, West Virginia.
West Virginia abolished the death penalty in 1965. No one has been executed by West Virginia since Brunner's death.
See also
General references
- Stan Bumgardner and Christine Kreiser, "'Thy Brother's Blood': Capital Punishment in West Virginia", West Virginia Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 9, no. 4 (Mar. 1996)
 | This crime-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
| This United States biographical article related to crime is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 | This West Virginia-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- 1959 deaths
- 1957 murders in the United States
- American people convicted of murder
- People executed by West Virginia by electric chair
- People executed for murder
- People convicted of murder by West Virginia
- 20th-century executions of American people
- American murderers
- Crime stubs
- American crime biography stubs
- West Virginia stubs