James Terry Roach, Date of Birth, Date of Death
TweetJames Terry Roach
Executed by the state of South Carolina
Date of Birth: 
About James Terry Roach
- James Terry Roach (February 18, 1960 – January 10, 1986) was the second person to be executed by the state of South Carolina following the 1976 decision by the U.S.
- Supreme Court reauthorizing the use of capital punishment by the states.
- He was electrocuted on January 10, 1986, nearly a year to the day following the electrocution of his accomplice, Joseph Carl Shaw on January 11, 1985, at the Central Correctional Institution in Columbia.
- He was executed at the age of 25 for a crime committed when he was 17 years old. On December 13, 1977, Roach pleaded guilty to two counts of murder, criminal sexual conduct, kidnapping, and robbery.
- He was convicted of the rape and murder of a fourteen-year-old girl and the murder of her seventeen-year-old boyfriend.
- Evidence presented at the trial showed that Roach was mentally handicapped, with an I.Q.
- between 75 and 80 and that he was probably suffering from Huntington's Chorea.
- Moreover, the sentencing judge found that Roach was under the influence of Shaw when the crimes were committed.
- Despite these mitigating factors, the sentencing judge declared that the death penalty was warranted in this case. The sentence was upheld on appeal by the South Carolina Supreme Court.
- Several attempts to seek review of the case or to bring a petition of habeas corpus were unsuccessful.
- The US Supreme Court declined to grant him certiorari. Pleas for legal reconsideration came from the United Nations, international figures, and former president Jimmy Carter.
- Governor Richard Riley denied clemency.On 10 January 1986, Roach, age 25, was strapped into the electric chair and gave his last words: "To my family and friends, there is only three words to say: I love you." He then gave a thumbs-up sign, reportedly to signal he was ready to die.
- He was pronounced dead at 5:16 AM.
- The case of James Terry Roach was brought before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which found by five votes to one that the United States Government had violated Article I (Right to Life) and Article II (right to equality before the law) of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man in executing James Terry Roach.
- This was the first time that the United States was found to be in violation with its human rights obligations under the said Declaration.
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