Twenty years after Congress created the Court of the United States for the District of Arkansas and invested in with authority over the Indian Territory but before that court was divided into Eastern and Western Districts and Isaac Parker took his seat as the presiding judge over more death sentences and hangings than any federal judge in history, Willis Beard was the first man to be executed under federal authority in Arkansas.
Beard had killed John Kelley in the Cherokee Nation. He was convicted in the U.S. Court for the District of Arkansas and sentenced to death.
Willis Beard was hanged on May 29, 1857.
The Federal Death Penalty Project 