Clyde Arwood

On Friday, November 28, a federal grand jury indicted Arwood for the first-degree murder of William Pugh and three counts related to operating his illegal still and making illegal mash. The three counts related to the still carried a maximum punishment of six years imprisonment, while the first-degree murder charge carried a mandatory death sentence. After Arwood pleaded not guilty, his trial date was set at January 5, 1942.

Arwood's trial took place in January 1942 in the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, in Memphis. Witnesses called to the stand at the trial included other federal agents who were with Pugh before and during the murder, as well as Pugh's widowed wife. One of the federal agents who was with Pugh, James Howes, was the principal witness; he described evidence linking Arwood to the illegal still, including a watch they found which Arwood's mother confirmed as his. Howes also testified to having observed Arwood chopping trees in the nearby woods on an earlier occasion, suggesting Arwood lived near the area. Another federal employee, Howard Taylor, displayed Pugh's daily reports wherein Pugh surmised that Arwood owned the still.

After a three-day trial, the jury rejected Arwood's insanity plea and convicted him of Pugh's murder on January 11, 1942. They did not offer a recommendation that Arwood be given mercy, making a death sentence mandatory. Arwood's attorney, Bailey Walsh, motioned for a new trial; a meeting was therefore scheduled for January 26, 1942, so Arwood's attorneys could argue in favor of a new trial or for a judge to challenge the jury's failure to recommend mercy for Arwood.

During the January 26 hearing, United States federal judge Marion Speed Boyd rejected Arwood's motion for a new trial and formally sentenced Arwood to death. Arwood was reportedly emotionless during his sentencing. The execution was first scheduled to take place on June 1, 1942.

Following Arwood's parole, Arwood moved back to Lauderdale County and began operating an illegal still, where he manufactured moonshine. Approximately one year later, on November 21, 1941, federal agents arrived at Arwood's home in west Lauderdale County, Tennessee, to arrest him for operating an unlicensed still. Before completing the arrest, Arwood requested to go back inside his house so he could bid farewell to his aged mother. Authorities allowed him to go back inside. Arwood reemerged from his house with a shotgun. He fired at William M. Pugh, a federal alcohol tax unit investigator and former federal prohibition agent from Memphis, Tennessee, and struck Pugh point-blank in the face. The shotgun wound mortally wounded Pugh, and although emergency medical services were summoned, Pugh died either on the way to the hospital, or within minutes of his arrival.

After his arrest, Arwood was interned in a jail in Shelby County. He was denied bond at a preliminary hearing. Prior to Arwood's case, Tennessee had never seen a federal murder trial. Prior to 1934, only cases involving officers employed with the United States Internal Revenue Service and Customs fell under U.S. federal jurisdiction. A new law after 1934 allowed cases involving all federal employees to fall under federal jurisdiction, meaning Arwood was eligible to be charged with murder in the West Tennessee Federal Courts, rather than in a state court.

Arwood was arrested for Lunsford's death and held in the Lauderdale County Jail. He was charged with Lunsford's murder on Thursday, August 6. On June 28, 1932, Arwood was convicted of Lunsford's murder and sentenced to 21 years in state prison. On August 24, 1938, Governor Gordon Browning commuted Arwood's sentence to 10-20 years in prison, and he was released on parole effective that day. Arwood violated his parole about a year later, leading to his return to prison on either August 31 or October 31, 1939, but he was paroled again on February 16, 1940. Around the time of Arwood's execution, Lunsford was repeatedly misidentified in newspapers as "Wyde Lunsford."

On August 2, 1931, Deputy Sheriffs James Wyatt Lunsford and C.A. Borders went to the home of Arwood's brother, Cornelius Arwood, near Ripley, Tennessee, following a report that Clyde Arwood had beaten Cornelius's wife severely enough to break her arm in retaliation for her not giving him a pistol. At the time, Arwood was heavily intoxicated. Lunsford and Borders attempted to arrest Arwood, but Arwood resisted arrest. After some time, Arwood agreed to speak to Lunsford, but as Lunsford approached him, Arwood shot him with a shotgun. Lunsford remained in the hospital for several days, during which his left arm developed gangrene and had to be amputated. On Wednesday, August 5, Lunsford died from his injuries.

James Clyde Arwood (September 7, 1901, Ripley, Tennessee – August 14, 1943) was the only person executed by the United States federal government in Tennessee. He was sentenced to death after his conviction of murdering William Pugh, a federal agent, during a raid of Arwood's illegal still.

James Clyde Arwood was born in Ripley, Tennessee, on September 7, 1901, to James Monroe Arwood and Dora Arwood (née Akin). According to his death certificate, Arwood was employed as a barber. He was married to Bessie Arwood, although they divorced sometime before his execution.