This Week in Texas Prison History

January 20:   

1963 - Huntsville Unit (Walls) - Bennie McIntyre, 20, Negro farm laborer from Rosebud who had been convicted of criminally assaulting a white woman, died in the electric chair at the state prison early Sunday. It was the first execution at the prison on a Sunday in seven years. Although several executions had been scheduled for Sunday in the past seven years, the State Board of Pardons and paroles had granted a stay of two to three days. McIntyre was convicted of criminally assaulting a white woman in Lynn County in April, 1961. Asked in a death row interview if he were guilty, he replied: "Now is not the time to tell a lie. I am guilty, and I am prepared to die." (AP. Houston Post, January 20, 1963)