Virginia Christian

Background

Virginia Christian was the first woman to die in the electric chair in Virginia. She was 17 years old and was executed in Virginia. She was described as black and as a maid/washerwoman in Hampton. Her mother was Charlotte Christian.

Virginia Christian was executed on August 16, 1912. The case drew interest across the state and nation because of her age and gender. A Chicago newspaper publicized the case and hired an attorney to intercede on her behalf with the governor.

The offence

Virginia Christian was convicted for the murder of 51-year-old Ida Belote.

The incident involved a conflict between Virginia Christian and her white employer, Ida Belote, who was described as Virginia’s employer in the Hampton area. Belote had accused Christian of stealing a locket and a skirt. The conflict escalated into a violent altercation in which Belote struck Christian with a cuspidor/spittoon, commonly called a “spittoon”.

Christian and Belote then ran for two broom handles that Belote used to prop up her bedroom windows. Christian grabbed one broom handle and struck Belote on the forehead.

In an attempt to stifle Belote’s screams, Christian stuffed a towel down Belote’s throat. Belote died by suffocation.

After Christian left the house, she stole Belote’s purse with some money and a ring.

One newspaper reported that police found Belote’s body “laying face down in a pool of blood, and her head was horribly mutilated and a towel was stuffed into her mouth and throat”.

The paper reported that Belote’s 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.

Investigation

Police soon arrested Christian. During questioning, Christian admitted to hitting Belote but stated she was shocked that Belote was dead. Christian claimed she had no intent to kill Belote.

Christian confessed shortly after she was arrested.

A newspaper quoted Christian’s confession verbatim:

She (Mrs Belote) come to mammer’s house dat morning an’ say she want me to come an’ do some washin’. When I come home mommer say miss Belote want me an’ I went ‘roun’ to de house. I wen’ in de back way an’ when she see me she asked me about a gold locket she missed. I told her I ain’t seen it an’ don’t know nuthin’ about it. She also say sumthin’ about a skirt but de main thing was the locket. She say “yes you got it an’ if you don’t bring it back, I’m goin’ to have you put in jail.” I got mad an’ told her if I did have it, she wasn’t goin’ to git it back. Den she picked up de spittoon and hit me wit it an’ it broke. They wuz two sticks in de room, broom handles. She run for one, an’ I for de’ other. I got my stick furst an’ I hit her wit it ‘side de hade and she fell down. She kep’ hollerin’ so I took a towel and stuffed it in her mouth. I helt it there twel she quit hollerin’ and jes’ groaned. I didn’t mean to kill her an’ I didn’t know I had. I was mad when I hit her an’ stuffed the towel in her mouth to keep her from hollerin’. I never meant to kill her. When I lef’ she was groanin’ and layin’ on her back.

One description of Virginia Christian in the local press included: “A full-blooded negress, with kinky hair done up in threads, with dark lusterless eyes and with splotches on the skin of her face. Her color is dark brown, and her figure is short, dumpy and squashy. She has had some schooling, but her speech does not betray it. Her language is the same as the unlettered members of her race.”

Trial

Christian was tried and convicted for murder by an Elizabeth City County Court. A lynch mob was described as looming in the background.

Local papers reported that the jury returned a guilty verdict on April 9, 1912.

The trial judge sentenced Christian to death in the state’s electric chair.

Christian’s attorneys were also African American and did not have Christian testify. When questioned about whether she received a fair trial, Hollins University History Professor Ruth Alden Doan said: “No. She's not getting a fair trial. She's not even allowed to testify,' said Hollins University History Professor Ruth Alden Doan.”

Doan stated that historical accounts showed the employer struck Christian repeatedly first, but that this was not brought out in court. Doan said: “Probably a lot of people in Virginia, a lot of white people would have thought that was not abuse, but was normal behavior,” Doan said.

Doan said her attorneys feared bringing Christian to the stand might incite widespread violence against blacks. Doan stated: “Maybe if she testified, and certainly if she got off, we'd have a lynch mob in town,” Doan said, “Even if Christian had not been brought to trial, if there had been no trial, probably she would have been tried by the community in one way or another, maybe hauled out and lynched, maybe just run from out of town.”

Christian was tried less than two weeks after the murder.

According to a letter from Christian’s attorneys to the governor, excitement about the tragedy remained unabated. The letter stated:

While excitement caused by the news of the tragedy was yet unabated.'

The letter also stated:

'Great throngs of people, far more than could be accommodated in the courtroom, pressed for entrance to the trial, and the feeling manifested was intense.'

Sentencing

A trial judge sentenced Christian to death in the state’s electric chair.

Governor William Hodges Mann declined to commute the death sentence despite a plea from Christian’s mother. The governor described Christian’s execution as necessary to ensure public safety, and described Christian’s murder of her white employer as “the most dastardly in the state's history”.

Appeals

Governor William Hodges Mann declined to commute the death sentence.

Christian’s plea to avoid execution came through her mother’s letter, and a Chicago newspaper had hired an attorney to intercede with the governor.

Outcome

Virginia Christian was executed on August 16, 1912 by electrocution at the state penitentiary in Richmond, Virginia.

It was described that her electric chair had been built in 1908 and that it was quite new when used upon Virginia Christian. In the years around 1912, the procedure of electrocution was still under development. The electrodes were attached to Christian’s forearms instead of her head and leg.

A reporter witnessed the execution and stated: “The usual three shocks were administered by the officer in charge of the electric current. Each time the electric switch was touched, the body of the woman responded with fearful convulsions. Death, it is believed, was instantaneous.”

Christian was described as 17 years old and was executed one day after her 17th birthday in August 1912, and a short five months after the crime.

Aftermath

Local papers 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.

Christian’s case was later referenced in connection with subsequent female executions in Virginia.

Other details

Charlotte Christian, the mother of Virginia Christian, wrote a letter to the governor in an effort to save her daughter from the electric chair. The letter stated:

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 too. 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.

A later account also described Christian as the last female executed by the Commonwealth until Thursday, September 23, 2010, when Teresa Lewis became the first female in nearly a century to be executed in the US state of Virginia.

The same later account described Christian as: “Virginia Christian was just 17 when she was put to death” and “The last time a female was executed in Virginia was nearly a century ago when a black teenager was convicted of killing her white female employer, after the woman accused the teen of stealing a skirt.”

It also described Christian’s work as a servant in the Hampton area and that she was convicted of strangling Mrs. Ida Belote. It described Christian’s conviction timing as “at just 17, without ever taking the stand,” with a sentence to die.

The account further stated that the electric chair described as still in use in modern times was available when death row inmates chose electrocution over lethal injection.

Finally, the account identified Ida Belote’s age and weight in a set of descriptions: Belote was described as weighing only 91 pounds and as “a frail, delicate widow,” and it stated that Belote was 51 years old and part of Hampton’s white aristocracy by way of her father’s prominence as the owner of a large grocery.