Ellis Rose (Execution of)

Ellis Rose was an African American man who was hanged at Jonesboro (Craighead County) on January 7, 1898, after being convicted of killing a prominent Black farmer in Crittenden County.

On June 28, 1896, Ellis Rose and Henry Sutton had attended a picnic at Blackfish (St. Francis County). Different newspaper accounts variously suggest that Rose was drunk and belligerent, or that Sutton suspected him of poisoning Sutton’s son-in-law. Either way, Sutton struck Rose and knocked him to the floor. Rose “swore vengeance.”

Different news articles state that on June 28, 1897, Sutton was hunting “hogs in the bottom,” helping Rose look for some lost horses, or riding his horse near Rose’s cabin near Earle (Crittenden County), when Rose shot him. The following morning, Rose went with another Black man, Lafayette Lucky, to see if he had killed Sutton. They found Sutton lying wounded by the road. The Osceola Times reported that Sutton “piteously begged them to take him where he could get attention.” Rose asked Sutton if he remembered how he had treated him at the picnic a year earlier. Rose and Lucky then dragged Sutton into the woods and abandoned him. The Forrest City Times reported that they “deliberately beat his head into a jelly with clubs.”

The Osceola Times reported that “hundreds” of Black men searched for Sutton. Rose and Lucky quickly became suspects in his disappearance. They proclaimed their innocence until Sutton’s body was found, after which they reportedly confessed.

Rose and Lucky were indicted for murder in Crittenden County. They subsequently gained a change of venue for the trial to Craighead County. “The feeling against them among their own race was very bitter,” the Arkansas Gazette reported, so they were taken from Marion (Crittenden County) to Jonesboro “for safety” while they awaited trial.

While no official records of Rose’s trial, held on September 27, 1897, appear to exist, Lucky apparently testified against him. The Jonesboro Weekly Sun reported that “the evidence disclosed a very dark crime and the jury was out only a couple of hours before bringing a verdict of murder in the first degree.” Rose was sentenced to hang on November 12, 1897. Lucky pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to twenty-one years in the Arkansas State Penitentiary.

On the day before Rose’s scheduled hanging, a judge delayed the execution until December 10, 1897. On December 9, Governor Daniel Webster Jones granted him a reprieve until January 7, 1898, so that he could consider a request by the Craighead County sheriff and Rose’s lawyer to commute Rose’s sentence and to review additional evidence.

In the commutation request, Rose claimed that at the 1896 picnic Sutton “came up behind him and without speaking a word, knocked him down with the half of a stave bolt,” leaving him bed-ridden for a month. After hearing that Sutton was making threats against him, Rose said he went to a justice of the peace seeking a “peace warrant” against Sutton. He was instead advised to sue for slander. On the day of the killing, Rose claimed that Sutton drove his livestock into Rose’s horse lot and threatened him with a club. Rose ran to his house, grabbed a shotgun, and fired at Sutton. Sutton then “dropped his club and ran in the direction of the woods.” Rose said he did not think that he had hurt Sutton seriously, but after finding him dead on the side of the road the next day, he hid the body. Rose said his lawyers did not have him testify at his trial because “they had not made a case against me,” and therefore his “side of the case was not presented to the jury.” Gov. Jones declined the commutation.

On the afternoon of January 7, 1897, Rose was escorted to the gallows. The Arkansas Gazette reported that he “made a short talk and cooly claimed that he had made preparations to die, and was at peace with God.” The Jonesboro Weekly Sun wrote that he “spoke for a few minutes, trying to justify himself and his crime and to impress on the crowd that he was prepared to die, but his speech was cold and disconnected.” The Arkansas Democrat reported that “he neither confessed nor denied the crime for which he was hanged, displaying remarkable nerve.”

The trap door opened just before 2:00 p.m. and Rose’s “body never gave any evidence of life after the drop.” The body was taken down fifteen minutes later and transferred to the potter’s field of the Jonesboro cemetery for burial.

For additional information:
“Arkansas State News.” Osceola Times, July 10, 1897, p. 2.

“At Eleventh Hour.” Arkansas Gazette, December 10, 1897, p. 3.

“Confessed to Brutal Murder.” Forrest City Times, July 9, 1897, p. 5.

“A Drop into Eternity.” Jonesboro Weekly Sun, January 13, 1898, p. 4.

“Ellis Rose Hanged.” Arkansas Democrat, January 7, 1898, p. 1.

“Ellis Rose to Hang.” Jonesboro Weekly Sun, September 30, 1897, p. 4.

“Hangmen at Work.” Arkansas Gazette, January 8, 1898, p. 1.

“Indicted for Murder.” Arkansas Gazette, July 24, 1897, p. 6.

Jonesboro Weekly Sun, November 11, 1897, p. 5, col. 4.

“A Memorable Court.” Jonesboro Weekly Sun, October 12, 1897, p. 4.

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas