James Terry Roach

James Terry Roach (February 18, 1960 – January 10, 1986) was the second person to be executed by the state of South Carolina following the 1976 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court reauthorizing the use of capital punishment by the states. He was electrocuted on January 10, 1986, aged 25, nearly a year to the day following the electrocution of his accomplice, Joseph Carl Shaw, on January 11, 1985, at the Central Correctional Institution in Columbia. Roach was executed for a crime he committed at age 17. This, combined with his borderline intellectual disabilities, made his execution highly controversial.

Roach was the first juvenile offender to be executed involuntarily in the United States since 1964. Another juvenile offender, Charles Rumbaugh, had been executed in Texas in 1985. However, the other execution had drawn far less controversy since Rumbaugh had wanted to die and had already tried to kill himself three times. Rumbaugh had also attempted suicide by cop by trying to stab a federal marshal with a makeshift weapon during a court hearing.