Ralph Hudson
Ralph Hudson was the last person to be executed by New Jersey.
A native of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, Hudson was tried and convicted of stabbing his estranged wife Myrtle Hudson to death as she worked in an Atlantic City, New Jersey, restaurant on December 27, 1960. Hudson had been convicted of assault and battery four months earlier and was sentenced to six months in jail but had been let out for Christmas.
Hudson was executed by electric chair in the Trenton State Prison. Although other prisoners were sentenced to death by New Jersey after Hudson, no prisoner has been executed since Hudson.
The New Jersey Legislature voted to abolish the death penalty in 2007, and the measure was signed into law by Governor Jon S. Corzine.
