David G. Chardavoyne (born September 10, 1948) is an American attorney, professor, and author of A Hanging in Detroit: Stephen Gifford Simmons and the Last Execution Under Michigan Law.[1] The book is a historical account of Stephen G. Simmons, a fifty-year-old tavern keeper and farmer, who, in September 1830, was hanged in Detroit for murdering his wife, Levana Simmons, in a drunken, jealous rage. Simmons was the second and last person to be executed under Michigan law. The book also chronicles Michigan's abolition of capital punishment in 1846, the first state to do so.
Born in Ohio, Chardavoyne lived for six years in Geneva, Switzerland where he attended the International School of Geneva. Returning to the U.S. in 1964, he graduated from Kennett Square (PA) Consolidated High School (1966) and from the University of Michigan (B.A., English, 1970). After serving in the U.S. Army Airborne in Germany, he graduated magna cum laude from Wayne State University Law School in 1976. He was a partner in one of Detroit's top law firms for 20 years until he started his own practice and began his research. He now teaches at Wayne State University Law School and the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. He also continues to write about Michigan's legal history, including a chapter in The History of Michigan Law [2]