Last weekend Moreese Bickham was laid to rest. He was 98 and was known as the oldest survivor of Death Row. Bickham was buried in his hometown in Mississippi with military honors, he was a World War II navy veteran.
Bickham was sentenced to capital punishment in 1958 after admitting to shooting and killing two law officers in a situation that could be considered self-defense. Bickham said he saw the racism of the death penalty firsthand when at his trial the judge insisted that only white males would sit in the jury.
San Antonio attorney Joan Cheever knew Moreese Bickham and wrote about him in her book – “Back From the Dead, one woman’s search for the men who walked off America’s death row.”
