Raleigh, June 5—Thanking his Master for the circumstances that gave him advance notice of his day of doom, Jim Collins, 19-year-old negro, went to the electric chair at state prison this morning for the slaying of A.C Sedberry, Anson county citizen.
“I think the Lord placed me here,” Collins said when he had been seated in the death chair. “If I had been left to run around, I might a had to go when I wasn’t ready, but since I’ve come here I’ve learned to read the Bible and I think I’m saved from torment.”
Collins came near going off without advance notice twice before they brought him here to await a definite day. A mob scoured Anson county for him the night after he killed Sedberry. He barely succeeded in getting out of its way. Days later, in Stanly county, when officers discovered him hiding in a thicket, they tossed loose a load of buck shot. It blew off his arm when it might have blown off his head, so Collins probably had good reason to be thankful for his opportunity to prepare to die.
This morning he seemed quite confident of his future. After giving his philosophy of death, he repeated the 23rd Psalm unfalteringly and impressive. Then, turning to the prison attendants who had hesitated with the death mask, he called, “All right.”
“Good bye Jim,” said Prison Chaplain Shacklette, grasping the negro’s hand as the headgear was strapped into place. After two shocks of 1,800 volts each, lasting 45 seconds, Dr. J.H. Norman, the prison warden, pronounced him dead.
The electrocution was witnessed by J.C. Sedberry of Rockingham, brother of the slain man. B.T. McRae, chief witness for the prosecution, was also present.
Collins’ case had attracted considerable interest as the result of appeals to the governor for the exercise of executive clemency. Among those most strongly appealing was Assistant Attorney General Frank Nash, who contended that he was not guilty of first degree murder.
Collins claimed to the end that he was justified in the shooting, according to a negro minister, who was with him in his last minutes.
From the front page of the Messenger and Intelligencer and Ansonian, Wadesboro, N.C., Thursday, June 11, 1925
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn97064505/1925-06-11/ed-1/seq-1/
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