William Jackson Marion

Marion was born in Mahaska County, Iowa on 13 May 1849 to Tipton Marion (1824 – 1909) and his wife, Margret McMains (1823 – 1868).

On May 5, 1872, Marion returned to his mother-in-law's home near Liberty with Cameron's team of horses, but without Cameron. Marion's mother-in-law suspected that he had killed Cameron, and eventually Marion left Nebraska. In March 1873, a decomposing body was found in a riverbed in Gage County, Nebraska, wearing clothing that unidentified witnesses claimed to be John Cameron's. Marion was named a suspect, although he was not then located.[2]

In December 1882, Marion was located in a county jail cell at Sedan, Kansas, in Chautauqua County, awaiting trial on a charge of stealing. He was taken to Beatrice, Nebraska, where he was indicted for the murder of John Cameron. A jury convicted him, and the judge sentenced him to death.[3][4] The trial took two months.[5] On appeal, the Nebraska Supreme Court vacated the conviction[6] and ordered a new trial, noting that under Nebraska law at the time of the murder, a death sentence had to be entered by a jury, not a judge. Upon his second conviction, Marion was again sentenced to death and, after losing a second appeal,[7] was hanged in Beatrice, Nebraska, on March 25, 1887. An article in the Omaha Daily Bee on March 26, 1887 declared there to be "no doubt that he was guilty and also guilty of other murders in the Indian Territory."[8]

Four years after Marion was executed, in 1891, John Cameron turned up alive and explained that he had, in the nearly twenty years since his "murder", traveled to Mexico, Alaska, and Colorado.[9][10] In a written statement provided by Marion's uncle William Wymore, Cameron explained that he had fled out of fear of a paternity allegation.[9] John Cameron said he had sold his team of horses to Marion and still had the note Marion had given him for payment of the remainder.[11]

On March 25, 1987, Marion was pardoned posthumously by the State of Nebraska, on the 100th anniversary of his hanging.[12][13]

A February 2013 documentary entitled "...until he is dead. A history of Nebraska's death penalty," discussed at length the hanging and later pardon of William Jackson Marion.[14]

• List of wrongful convictions in the United States