Antonio James was executed by the State of Louisiana for the murder of Henry Silver
According to court documents Antonio James would rob seventy year old Henry Silver as he was getting out of his vehicle. James would shoot Henry Silver before robbing him. Silver would die in the hospital a few hours later
Antonio James would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Antonio James would be executed by lethal injection on March 1 1996
Antonio James Case
A man who had avoided execution 13 times in his 14 years on death row was executed by injection early today for killing an elderly man in a 1979 robbery.
The prisoner, Antonio James, 42, had waited longer for his execution than any other prisoner still on the state’s death row. Mr. James was sentenced to die in 1982 for the murder of Henry Silver, 70, on New Year’s Day 1979 in New Orleans.
He had also been sentenced to life in prison for the robbery and murder of Alvin Adams on Jan. 23, 1979. Mr. James was captured in May 1979 after another robbery victim grabbed his gun and wounded him in the leg.
In appeals over the years, defense lawyers complained of ineffective counsel, no money to investigate the crimes and prosecutorial misconduct. They said Mr. James was retarded, had used drugs and had a deprived childhood in the housing projects of New Orleans
Lawyers also had five prison witnesses who said Mr. James’s accomplice had admitted firing the gun and killing Mr. Silver. The accomplice, Levon Price, received a suspended sentence after testifying that he had watched from a getaway car while Mr. James shot Mr. Silver.
The execution was the first here since the movie “Dead Man Walking” was released this winter. The movie was partly filmed at the Angola penitentiary and focused attention on executions in Louisiana.
