The Boy Nevada Killed: Floyd Loveless and the Juvenile Capital Punishment Debate

by Janice Oberding

At seventeen, Floyd Burton Loveless became the youngest person ever executed by the state of Nevada. What led him to that end was just as tragic. Following a series of family catastrophes, Loveless was a petty thief by age twelve and a confessed rapist at fifteen. Sentenced to seven years at an Indiana state boys" reformatory, he escaped after a month in custody. The ruthless teen robbed his way to Carlin, Nevada, where he shot and killed a constable who spotted the stolen car he was driving and confronted him. After a protracted legal battle, Loveless died in the gas chamber on September 29, 1944. Author Janice Oberding recounts the sordid details that sparked national controversy over the constitutionality of juvenile capital punishment.

Genres: Nonfiction

160 pages, Paperback

Published February 20, 2017

Reviews

[Katy Koivastik · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting treatise against capital punishment for minors, also known as children. Floyd Loveless was 15 when he killed a constable while on the run from an Indiana reformatory (home to John Dillinger for a time).

Is a child's brain fully formed? Of course not. The family, friends and many good citizens of Nevada could instinctively see what the district attorney and state Supreme Court apparently could not and Floyd Loveless was gassed at the tender agency of 17. Fortunately, since 2005, capital punishment has been deemed unconstitutional for crimes committed by anyone younger than 18 years, though almost 60 years too late for Frank and the people who fought for his cause.

The author had the benefit of connecting with Loveless' family members and provides us with many interesting photos of the young man and his family and environs, both in Indiana and Nevada.

My very tiny quibbles: Floyd and his suicidal mother Hazel are buried in Fair Haven Cemetery, as shown in a photo, yet the author refers to it as "Fairhaven" throughout. Also, at the very end of the book, the author paints readers a picture: "Across the county from Mulberry (the Indiana town where Fair Haven Cemetery is located), Richard H. Sheehan, the warden of the Nevada state prison sat down at his desk." Clearly she meant "country" rather than "county" .

[Judi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Usually when I read a work of non-fiction I tend to shy away from giving them a low rating. The reason for this, I admit, is that they tend to stir up emotions and I figured that it wasnt just the story itself that effected me in that way, but in how the story was written. Honestly, I struggled with that idea as it may not be fair to other readers on Goodreads. With that being said....I did not like this book at all; if it hadnt been given to me as a gift I wouldnt have finished it.
I'm going to skip giving a rundown of the story itself because one is provided already and I really have nothing I want to add. The death sentence of Floyd Loveless occurred in 1944. I had trouble with reconciling that fact with the wording in the subtitle "....juvenile capital punishment debate." Though the author does bring up other teens from the same era, that's all she does. There are no statistics and really no debate. Bringing up a case from that long ago and not tying it into recent cases lead to the story falling way short. I got the impression that Loveless's story was a pet project for the author and I think that was the big stumbling block in this book. She did 40 years of research and wrote a 148 page book! For me it was about a fourth of Loveless's story and three-fourths court documents and half-assed interviews. When the decision to write a book is personal there's the chance of being biased, which is understandable. However, her decision to use the word debate, her bringing up his childhood as the reason for his criminal activities, should have resulted in a more in-depth look at both of these things, but she failed to do so. I really dont think that there was enough information about Loveless. She interviewed two family members! The author presents over and over the idea that though Loveless was, without a doubt, guilty of killing the constable, he "most likely" wasnt guilty of some of the other crimes he confessed to; that there was reason to believe he took the fall for his older brother or friends. She didnt present any witnesses or confessions from childhood friends, not even rumors that went around town to support such a theory. I wont go any further, even though I could. I enjoy true crime, I am a death penalty opponent, but this book was an utter disappointment!!!

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't wish to be too hard on it, as it seems the author is not a professional writer. This could have been a much better book, with the issue of capital punishment and the culpability of juveniles in our society. Unfortunately, the writing is not good, and the narrative lacks focus, giving way in the latter part to considerable filler material in the form of correspondence and official directives, which could have been summarized or simply left out.

I think the author also makes a mistake early in the book by relating the alleged rape as factual, when we learn later that there were reasons to doubt the boy's own admission. It makes the reader lose a great deal of sympathy early on, along with potential interest in reading the rest of the story. One still finishes the book (I think) believing that justice was probably not done in this case, that a young life was needlessly thrown away.

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was torn on how to rate this book as I felt like I didn’t know enough about some history backstory. It was a quick read, and I am thankful to know about this event.