Virginia Christian
Virginia Christian (August 15, 1895 – August 16, 1912) was the first female criminal executed in the 20th century in the state of Virginia, and a juvenile offender executed in the United States. She was also the only female juvenile executed by electric chair and, to date, the last female criminal executed in the electric chair by the Commonwealth of Virginia. She was the last female criminal executed by the Commonwealth until Thursday, September 23, 2010 when Teresa Lewis became the first female criminal in nearly a century to be executed in the US state of Virginia. Christian, a  black maid, was convicted for the murder of her employer Ida Belote, a white woman, aged 72 years, in her home at Hampton on March 18, 1912. Shortly after she was arrested, it is said she confessed that she hit Belote, but that she had never intended to kill her. Incident. Belote frequently mistreated and abused Christian, and in mid- March 1912, an argument ensued between the two in which Belote falsely accused Christian of stealing a locket and a skirt. Belote hit Christian with a cuspidor, commonly called a 'spittoon'. The altercation escalated when Christian and Belote ran for  two broom handles Belote used to prop up her bedroom windows. Christian grabbed one of the broom handles and struck Belote on the forehead. In an attempt to stifle Belote's screams, Christian stuffed a towel down Belote's throat, and the woman died by suffocation. When Christian left the house, she stole Belote's purse with some money and a ring. One newspaper reported that police found Belote's body "laying face down in a pool of blood, and her head was horribly mutilated and a towel was stuffed into her mouth and throat". Trial and execution. Police soon  arrested Christian, and during questioning, she admitted to hitting Belote but was shocked that Belote was dead. Christian claimed she had no intent to kill Belote. With a lynch mob looming in the background, an Elizabeth City County Court tried and convicted Christian for murder and the trial judge sentenced her to death in the state's electric chair. One day after her 17th birthday in August 1912, a short five months after the crime, Virginia authorities executed Christian at the state penitentiary in Richmond. Governor William Hodges Mann, who was also a Confederate veteran, declined to commute the death  sentence, despite a plea from Virginia's mother, Charlotte Christian, who wrote to him: After the Governor declined this request, Christian took her seat in the electric chair, where she was electrocuted in the state prison in Richmond. She was 17 years old. The paper reported that her body was to be turned over to the state medical school, because her parents did not have the money to transport the body from Richmond.