Leonard Shockley

Leonard Melvin Shockley (1941– April 10, 1959) was a juvenile executed in the United States on April 10, 1959, for a murder committed when he was under the age of 18. Shockley, a black male, was executed in Maryland in a gas chamber for the murder of shopkeeper Sarah Hearne on January 16, 1958. Shockley (then 16) was involved in the robbery of a small shop in Dorchester County, Maryland. He was accompanied by his older brother, 23-year-old Harold Edward Shockley (born January 26, 1936). Hearne was found stabbed several times in the back and breast, and her throat had been cut. The front of her underpants had been torn out.

The young culprits were identified by an eyewitness. Leonard was 17 years of age at the time of his execution, making him the last juvenile to be executed in the United States (further cases of juvenile murderers were punished with death but all were adults at the time of execution, the last in 2003, largely due to extensive appeals processes). His brother received life in prison and was eventually released.

Shockley was the penultimate person to be executed for a crime committed at the age of 16 in the United States. Serial killer Sean Sellers was executed in Oklahoma in 1999, nearly 40 years after the execution of Shockley. Unlike Shockley, however, Sellers was an adult by the time of his execution.

Background Leonard Melvin Shockley was 16 at the time of the murder. He lived with his parents and several siblings in the rural, unincorporated community of Omar, Delaware. At one point, the family lived near the unincorporated community of Boxiron, Maryland, but they relocated to Omar. Leonard was close to his brother, Harold Edward Shockley, who was 23 years old at the time of the murder. Harold had a previous conviction of larceny, and just days before the murder, he was released from jail on probation. Leonard had stopped attending school, and he had been unemployed for a few weeks.

Leonard and Harold Shockley drove to a store in Boxiron owned by Sarah Hearne, a 39-year-old mother of three. They arrived at approximately 1:00 PM. Evidence suggests that Harold stayed in the car during the beginning of the crime, while Leonard entered the store with a knife in his waistband. When Hearne approached to serve Leonard, Leonard punched her in the face and proceeded to stab her multiple times in the chest and back. Subsequently, he cut her throat with the knife. During the attack, Harold entered the store and tried to open the cash register; he was unable to take any money because the cash register jammed. Leonard and Harold Shockley then fled the scene and drove away, with Leonard behind the wheel.

Apprehension Leonard and Harold returned to their home, where they were arrested at 9:15 PM, about eight hours after the murder. They still had Hearne's blood on them, and their car had blood in it as well.

Afterwards, both were transferred to Maryland for trial. Harold died on October 6, 2001, at the age of 65.

Execution Leonard Shockley was executed in Maryland's gas chamber on April 10, 1959. The execution began at 10:00 PM, when Shockley was escorted into the gas chamber. One of the witnesses to the execution, Sheila Shields Duncan, fainted at the sight of Shockley. Guards sealed the gas chamber at 10:02 PM, and at 10:03, the pill of hydrogen cyanide dropped into a vat of sulfuric acid. Shockley's last audible words were, "How long will it take?" He died only one minute later, with the prison physician, Dr. Henry W.D. Holljes, pronouncing him dead at 10:04 PM by reading an electrocardiogram attached to Shockley's heart.