Harvey L. Roush photograph   Save
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections
Description: This photograph from the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus is of Harvey L. Roush, a 47-year-old tenant farmer of Marion County, Ohio. Cline was the 221st individual to be executed via the electric chair in Ohio. The caption at the bottom reads: "No. 221, Harvey L. Roush, of Marion County, Legally Electrocuted April 26th, 1939 for the Murder of Mr. and Mrs. Homer T. Myers, at Marion, Ohio.” In 1885 the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio, became the location for all executions, which previously took place in the various county seats. In 1896 the Ohio General Assembly mandated that electrocution replace hanging as the form of capital punishment. The Ohio Penitentiary regularly offered tours as well as souvenir photographs and postcards of the building and prisoners on death row. A total of 315 prisoners, both men and women, were executed in the electric chair known as “Old Sparky” between 1897 and 1963. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL08275
Subjects: Ohio History--State and Local Government--Law; Capital punishment--Ohio--History; Death row; Electrocution; Ohio History--State and Local Government--Corrections; Ohio Penitentiary (Columbus, Ohio); Prisons--Ohio
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio); Marion County (Ohio); Marion (Ohio)