Grant Me to Live: The Execution of Virginia Christian

Charles Vaughan was inspired to write this manuscript by accident as he happened past an anti-death penalty protest at Virginia State Penitentiary. A family member of the man to be executed, handed him a pamphlet, and to his horror, it was titled, “Legal Executions of Virginia.”When he later studied this material, he learned of the execution of a seventeen-year-old African-American female first-time offender in Virginia in 1912, regardless of a state law to protect juveniles like her from imprisonment and capital punishment. It appears that racial intolerance got in the way of justice in this case, and maybe many others in the “not so sunny” south of the past.Vaughan’s work provides historical information of a disturbing nature and inspires the reader to give serious thought to events in the world today.