Julius Morgan (c. 1894 – July 13, 1916) was an American criminal who was the first prisoner executed by the electric chair in Tennessee, after being convicted for the rape of a twenty-year-old woman.
Morgan unsuccessfully sought clemency from the Tennessee Supreme Court and Governor Thomas Clarke Rye before admitting his guilt at his execution.
[1] Morgan stated that he had been convicted for the assault of a woman in Arkansas in 1913, for which he was sentenced to two years in prison.
[3][4] Morgan was accused of criminally assaulting Laura Sullivan on February 1, 1916, near Dyersburg, Tennessee.
[5] The crime occurred when the woman, described in news reports as a "20 year-old white girl" who was selling "toilet articles", came to a house where Morgan was working.
The sheriff of Dyer County moved Morgan to Jackson to protect him from a mob of vigilantes who planned to lynch him.
[12] After the Supreme Court refused to overturn the death penalty, Morgan attempted to gain clemency from the governor.