Public executions in the US stopped nearly a century ago - why are they resuming now?
Summary
The United States stopped public executions almost 90 years ago after a widely attended public hanging in Kentucky in 1936. Recently, the US military announced plans to publicly execute Nidal Hasan by firing squad, with the event to be live-streamed, marking a return to public execution in a highly modern format.Key Facts
- The last high-profile public hanging in the US was in 1936 in Owensboro, Kentucky, where around 20,000 people attended.
- Rainey Bethea was executed by hanging for the rape and murder of a 70-year-old woman.
- Public executions were banned in Kentucky about 18 months after Bethea’s hanging.
- The US military plans to execute Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 soldiers in 2009, by firing squad.
- This execution will be live-streamed to the public, a first in recent US history.
- Public support for the death penalty has dropped from 80% in 1994 to about 52% today.
- Experts and historians criticized the return to public executions, calling it a form of entertainment.
- The announcement has raised ethical concerns about the impact of livestreaming executions.
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