20,000 Watched the Last Public Hanging 78 Years Ago

20,000 Watched the Last Public Hanging 78 Years Ago

Writing today about the last public execution in the United States. It occurred 78 years ago yesterday. In Owensboro, Kentucky. The hanging was attended by nearly 20,000 people and it looked like this.

The defendant, Rainey Bethea, raped and murdered Lischia Edwards on June 7, 1936. Bethea was an early suspect and confessed. Fingerprint evidence (that was new) linked him to the crime.

As his trial was to begin, Bethea pled guilty. He had been charged only with rape (not murder) which then permitted a sentence of public hanging. Had he been convicted of murder, the death penalty would have been carried out in Eddyville by electric chair.

The trial started before the month of June was over. The jury was selected from a pool of 111 names. The FIRST 12 names drawn served on the jury. All were white. All were men. The victim was white. Bethea was black.

The Owensboro jury that heard this case deliberated Bethea's penalty only. It could sentence him to not less than 10 years in prison or death by public hanging. The deliberations lasted 4 1/2 minutes. The entire case was tried over 3 1/2 hours on a single day.

The penalty was public execution.

With new lawyers Bethea moved for a new trial on July 10th. The trial judge (George Wilson) denied the motion summarily, it not being filed before the court's term ended on July 4th.

An appeal was denied before July ended. And a Habeas Corpus challenged failed in federal court.

Happy Chandler signed the death warrant on August 6th. It had been two months since the murder.

Bethea was hanged eight days later before a huge crowd. The crowd was so thick, the hearse carrying Bethea's body could hardly make it away from the gallows. The circus surrounding the execution embarrassed Kentucky and in 1938 the state banned public hanging.

Commonwealth v. Bethea, File No. 10971, Daviess Circuit Court

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