Antonio James

Who was Antonio James?

Antonio G. James was an American murderer. He was tried and executed in Louisiana for the murder of Henry Silver. This case is notable not for any unusual or intrinsic aspect, but for being one of the few such cases that ever comes to the attention of the general public. Like the case of Edward Earl Johnson whose last days on death row in Mississippi were filmed for the BBC in 1987 as Fourteen Days in May, this case came to light precisely because it was so ordinary, and was seen to be so. To some it demonstrated the need for capital punishment to protect the public from such dangerous people. To others it demonstrated the inhumanity of death row. Whatever conclusions were reached, this case remains one of the few such cases in the public domain that does not involve a celebrity perpetrator or victim, and so reminds all concerned of nature of most capital cases in the USA.