David Joseph Watson

Who was David Joseph Watson?

David Joseph Watson was a 23-year old African American, executed by the United States Federal Government in Florida for a murder committed on the High Seas.

Watson was the third federal inmate executed under President Harry S. Truman and one of only two inmates executed on federal warrant in Florida during 20th century. Unlike the first, Caucasian American James Aldermon, Watson was put to death in Florida's electric chair in Raiford Prison. Aldermon was hanged at the U.S. Coast Guard Station near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, although federal inmates were usually executed by the method used by a state where they committed a crime; in Florida's case electrocution. Presently all federal executions take place in Terre Haute, Indiana, while previously in the state where federal capital crime was committed.