Campbell was a 20-year old Black man raised in the Choctaw Nation in the southeastern corner of Indian Territory. North of there in the Cherokee Nation on February 18, 1875, Campbell and his younger brother, Sam, and half-brother, Frank Butler, killed Lawson Ross and a young girl.
The murder was in retaliation a wrong done to Campbell’s parents by Ross.
At trial before Judge Parker, Edmund Campbell and Butler were found guilty. Prior to sentencing, Butler was killed while trying to escape. Campbell was sentenced to death.
Along with five other men, each sentenced to death for a separate murder, Edmund Campbell was hanged on September 3, 1875.
The Federal Death Penalty Project 