JFK Assassination Plus General Discussion & Debate > JFK Assassination Plus General Discussion And Debate

Would Oswald have been convicted?

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John Corbett:

--- Quote from: John Mytton on April 13, 2026, 03:50:16 AM ---That's interesting.

Oswald was ready to die.
He wrote in his "Historic Diary" about his suicide attempt and after he kills General Walker, Oswald writes in his Walker Note "If I'm still alive" obviously fully expecting to be killed by the Police.

And when arrested in the Texas Theater he pulls out his revolver and tries to kill McDonald, an act which if he succeeded would mean instant death. "Suicide by cop"

Also when he was arrested and riding back to DPHQ after he's told "I hear they burn for murder." Oswald replies with "Well, they say it just takes a second to die".

Oswald was unhinged with a death wish!

JohnM

--- End quote ---

It all would have hinged on whether Oswald chose to use the full appeals process available to him. Only one person who committed a murder after the JFKA and before the Supreme Court vacated all existing death penalty statutes was executed and that was a man who chose to accept his sentence without appealing it.
I believe the last execution in the US  prior to SCOTUS vacating the death penalty was in California in 1967 but that was for a murder committed before the JFKA.

Interestingly, the first two convicts executed after states reinstituted the death penalty were also men who chose not to fight their sentence. The most famous was Gary Gilmore made famous by Norman Mailer's book The Executioner's Song, later made into a TV movie starring a very young Tommy Lee Jones. Gilmore died by firing squad in Utah. I'm going to go out on a limb and trust my memory rather than look it up but I believe the second was a guy named Jesse Bishop and I think he died in Californias's gas chamber. I will look it up after I post this to see how good my memory is.

UPDATE: I looked it up and I correctly named Jesse Bishop and his method of execution but he died in Nevada's gas chamber, not California's. He was also the third person executed not the second. John Spenkelenk was the second and he died in Florida's electric chair. I remember the name and where he was executed and how but I thought he died after Bishop. Spenkelenk did fight his execution but ran out his appeals. Now it takes about 25 years for the appeals process to be exhausted. I have no idea why it should take so long but attorneys have figured out how to game the system and put off executions for decades.

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