Ralph Hudson

Ralph Hudson (died January 22, 1963) was the last person to be executed by New Jersey.

For the English shipowner and politician, see Ralph Milbanke Hudson.
Ralph Hudson
Born1920
Coatesville, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedJanuary 22, 1963 (aged 42/43)
Trenton State Prison, Trenton, New Jersey, U.S.
Cause of deathExecution by electrocution
OccupationCarpenter
Criminal statusExecuted
Conviction(s)First degree murder
Assault and battery
Criminal penaltyDeath

A native of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, Hudson was tried and convicted of stabbing his estranged wife Myrtle Hudson to death as she worked in an Atlantic City, New Jersey, restaurant on December 27, 1960. Hudson had been convicted of assault and battery four months earlier and was sentenced to six months in jail but had been let out for Christmas.[1] Hudson turned down a plea deal for second degree murder and said he deserved to die. He was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death.

Hudson was executed by electric chair in the Trenton State Prison. Although other prisoners were sentenced to death by New Jersey after Hudson,[2] no prisoner has been executed since Hudson.

The New Jersey Legislature voted to abolish the death penalty in 2007, and the measure was signed into law by Governor Jon S. Corzine.[3]

See also

References
  1. Released for Christmas, he stabs his wife
  2. Joseph F. Sullivan, "High Court in New Jersey Upholds Death Penalties", The New York Times, 29 July 1992.
  3. Jeremy W. Peters, "Death Penalty Repealed in New Jersey", The New York Times, 17 December 2007.


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