James Donald French (ca. 1936 – 10 August 1966) was an American criminal who was the last person executed under Oklahoma's death penalty laws prior to Furman v. Georgia, which suspended capital punishment in America from 1972 until 1976. Background and crime James French was serving a life sentence in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester for killing Frank Boone, a West Virginia motorist who had picked him up while hitchhiking, in 1958. French had requested a death sentence for that charge, but the jury handed down a life sentence anyway, against his wishes. Dismayed, French wrote several letters to the governor asking for a new trial, one in which he could get a death sentence, but the letters went unanswered and ignored. While serving his life sentence, French was placed with inmate Eddie Lee Shelton. The two did not get along, in addition to French growing tired of prison life. On October 27, 1961, French attacked Shelton. According to Oklahoma County District Judge Charles Owens, who was an assistant attorney general during French's time on death row, French "determined the victim should have a last meal," so he treated Shelton to a steak sandwich from the prison canteen and "allowed" Shelton to go to breakfast. Upon Shelton's return from breakfast, "French wrapped a towel around [Shelton’s] neck" and strangled Shelton to death. French was fully aware of the consequences for his actions, making an immediate voluntary confession and explaining that he murdered Shelton because Shelton "was stupid [...] and refused to shape up." When he went to trial for Shelton's murder, French asked the judge to sentence him to death and deny all future appeals because he wished to die in the electric chair, and he explained that he committed the murder to compel the state of Oklahoma to execute him. The judge obliged his request, imposing a death sentence. Trials and appeals Third parties tried to save French's life during his time on death row. He won a total of three trials thanks to the efforts of attorneys working against his wishes. After the first trial, those attorneys won French a new trial based on the fact that jury members saw French in shackles while he was in court, which biased their view of him during the trial. After the second trial, attorneys argued that the judge who presided over the trial gave an improper response to an