Tags: Criminal.
John Gordon (died February 14 1845) was the last person executed by Rhode Island. His conviction and execution have been ascribed by researchers to anti-Roman Catholic and anti-Irish immigrant bias. As a result he was posthumously pardoned in 2011.In 1844 Gordon was tried and convicted for the December 31 1843 beating murder of Amasa Sprague a Cranston textile factory owner. The murder occurred within the village of Knightsville Rhode Island.