FORMER IDAHO JUDGE SENTENCED TO BE SHOT FOR WIFE'S MURDER
Salt Lake City, Utah (JFK+50) On July 13, 1922, Omer R. Woods, a former probate judge in Idaho, was sentenced "to face a firing squad at the Utah State Prison*" on the first day of September "at sunrise."
Judge Woods had been convicted of killing his wife to obtain $1600 in life insurance. He was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Ephriam Johnson who gave the former judge a choice of being shot or hanged.
Woods claimed that his wife was murdered by robbers but evidence at trial convinced the jury that he was the murderer and had burned his wife's body after dousing her bed with oil.
*In 1922, the Utah State Prison was in its original location where Sugar House Park is today (I-80m 2100 S, 1300 E & 1700 E) in Salt Lake City. In 1951, the state prison was moved to Draper.
SOURCE
"Ex-Judge To Be Shot," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., July 13, 1922, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
