List of homicides in 1957

This is a List of homicides in 1957. It includes homicide cases occurring throughout the Birmingham area during the calendar year. Note that not all homicides are ultimately ruled to be murder in courts of law.

Jefferson County

Birmingham

Birmingham had __ homicides in 1957. (list)

Bessemer

• July 12: James B. Clark, 44, a Lipscomb police officer, died from gunshot wounds suffered during an altercation with a driver he had chased and pulled over at Exeter Alley. Caliph Washington was convicted of 1st degree murder and sentenced to death. His execution was stayed, first by Governor George Wallace and then by U.S. District Judge Frank Johnson. He was arrested again in 1965 and held pending another trial, which resulted in another conviction and death sentence in 1970. The Alabama Supreme Court overturned that conviction and ordered him released in 1971. Bessemer authorities attempted to indict him again in 1972, but the prosecution did not proceed. Orzell Billingsley's appeals of Washington's various convictions led to the abolishment of all-white juries in Jefferson County. The incident and its aftermath are detailed in Jonathan Bass' 2017 book He Calls Me By Lightning.

Tuscaloosa County

• David Dockery was killed. James Barney Hubbard was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to prison. He was released in 1976, in part because store owner Lillian Montgomery, who had befriended him, offered him work and an apartment. Hubbard was later convicted of killing her and returned to prison. He was executed in 2004. (report)