Watson was convicted of the murder of Benjamin Leroy Hobbs, a fellow seaman, aboard a U.S. naval ship that was docked in Florida.
Newspaper accounts described Watson as a Black American "navy cook"[1] who was "short, stocky, and powerfully built," with an "above average" education.
[4] His victim, Benjamin Leroy Hobbs, was from Nebo, North Carolina and lived with his impoverished widowed mother.
[3] In the early morning hours of July 25, 1946, near Key West in Florida, David Watson murdered Hobbs, a 19-year-old seaman.
For two weeks, authorities carried out a "highly secret" manhunt to confirm the identity of the killer, monitoring Watson's shipmates as well to detect their movements and eliminate other suspects.
Later, after authorities transported Watson to the county jail in Miami to await his trial for murder, they discovered an iron bar and two hidden razors on his person.
During the first, which took place in October 1946, Watson's mother Inez, a schoolteacher born in Pennsylvania,[5] was reported to have attended many of the proceedings.
Attorney A.C. Dressler stated during the defense's closing statements, "[Watson] has a warped mind; he is a lost soul.
"[1] However, the United States District Attorney working for the prosecution, Herbert S. Phillips, argued that Watson was a "cunning murderer."
[8] Presently, all federal executions take place in Terre Haute, Indiana and are carried out by lethal injection, regardless of the methods permitted for use in the state where an executed federal death row inmate was convicted of committing a capital crime.