On September 6, 1893, James Upkins was arrested for raping his six-year old daughter in Ardmore, Indian Territory (present day south central Oklahoma).
Tried in the newly established U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Paris, Texas, Upkins, who was Black, was found guilty on December 12, 1893, and sentenced to death.
Along with Mannon Davis and Eduardo Gonzales, who had also been convicted of capital crimes committed in Indian Territory, James Upkins was publicly hanged in Paris, Texas, on March 30, 1894. A large crowd had gathered to witness the event.
Upkins’ case is one of only a handful of federal executions that did not involve a murder.
The Federal Death Penalty Project 