Prisoner Pardoned After Warden Refuses to Pull The Switch

A strange situation that saved the life of a condemned man arose as Jim Williams, was about to be executed in the Florida state penitentiary at Raiford in 1926. After he had been strapped into the electric chair and the black hood placed over his head, both the warden and the sheriff refused to pull the switch, each claiming it was the duty of the other. At the end of the futile and heated argument which lasted 20 minutes. Williams was un-strapped and returned to his cell. For being subjected to this misfortune, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and, eight years later, for saving two lives on a prison farm, he was rewarded with a full pardon. (Encyclopedia of Illustrations #1134).