Warrington, Holmes, and Rosewain were crew aboard an Argentine-flagged privateer that captured a merchant ship transporting valuable cargo. Once captured, the three men were among those charged with sailing the captured ship back to Argentina.
The three men had other plans. Aboard ship on July 4, 1818, Warrington, Holmes, and Rosewain killed the other sailors on the seized ship, discharged the prisoners on land, and set sail for Baltimore, where they planned to sell the cargo.
However, they overshot their destination and sailed instead to Scituate, Massachusetts, where they were arrested.
They were convicted of piratical and felonious homicide on the high seas by the Circuit Court of Massachusetts in 1818 and sentenced to death. Their conviction was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In the opening paragraph of its opinion, the Supreme Court clearly articulated the basis on which this and all other cases of piracy were treated as federal capital cases: “The courts of the United States have jurisdiction under the Act of 30 April, 1790, c. 36, of murder or robbery committed on the high seas, although not committed on board a vessel belonging to citizens of the United States, as if she had no national character, but was held by pirates or persons not lawfully sailing under the flag of any foreign nation.“
Warrington, Holmes, and Rosewain were hanged in Boston on June 15, 1820.
The Federal Death Penalty Project 