Robert Eugene Carter

Robert Eugene Carter ( – ) was an American man who was convicted of the 1953 murder of a Washington, D.C. police officer named George Cassels, whom Carter shot during a foot chase from a holdup Carter had committed immediately prior. Carter's execution on April 26, 1957, made him the final person to be executed prior to the death penalty's abolition in the District of Columbia in 1981.

Background Robert Carter was born on , to William and Martha Carter. He was African American. At the time of his death, he was married to Ruby Carter, and they had two young children, a girl and a boy; at the time of Cassels' murder, Carter's wife was pregnant with a third child.

Carter had no criminal record prior to the robbery and murder that resulted in his death sentence. Newspapers described Carter as a "laborer" who had been struggling to find consistent work for weeks prior the murder.

Immediately after the shooting, Carter attempted to go into hiding to avoid capture; he ran to his own home, which was located one block from the murder scene, and hid there while police officers questioned his wife regarding his whereabouts. His wife denied having seen him, and police then moved on from the Carters' home. Carter then changed clothes and hid the weapon, a German Luger, in a closet. He joined some friends to ride around town and visit other friends and relatives in the area around Silver Spring, Maryland. It was during one of these visits that police officers arrested Carter, nine hours after Cassels was shot and before Cassels died. In fact, Cassels did not immediately die from his wound; he remained conscious most of the day, and 228 volunteers, including 50 police officers, contributed at least 47 pints of his blood type ("O" type blood). Nevertheless, Cassels died on July 12, 25 hours after sustaining his gunshot wound. Doctors declared his cause of death to be a bullet that punctured his large and small intestines, liver, and kidney.

At his execution, witnesses described Carter as emotionless, although he smiled at the jail's Catholic chaplain, who attended the execution, and uttered several prayers. Carter was 28 at the time of his death. In 1992, lawmakers attempted and failed to pass a referendum that proposed reinstating the death penalty in the district.

, the electric chair D.C. officials used to execute Carter resides in the D.C. Archives.