Many states have adjusted their schedules in recent years, and the vast majority of U. Of the 34 states where the death penalty has been carried out since , 15 states still execute inmates in the middle of the night. One of them is Tennessee, where double-murderer Steve Henley is to die by injection at 1 a. The late hour has some victims' advocates in the state upset. It just puts you completely off any routine.
It's exhausting and really not necessary," said Verna Wyatt, executive director of You Have the Power, a Nashville-based crime victim advocacy group that has asked Tennessee corrections officials to give up midnight executions. Inmates less likely to protest? Corrections officials in states that still schedule executions between midnight and 3 a.
The state also has more time to fight late challenges. Those issues haven't greatly complicated daytime or evening executions, according to victims' advocates and states that prefer those times. Approximately 20, people gathered around the gallows to witness the execution. After 14 minutes, his body was taken down and he was confirmed dead. This was the last public hanging ever performed in the United States.
So what does any of this have to do with executions being held at midnight? Interestingly, the fact that people preferred day time executions actually appears to be one of the chief reasons executions were, for a time in the United States, initially switched to late night, giving us the Hollywood trope that has largely endured to this day. The earliest examples of this change occurred in the late 19th century as certain states began looking to curtail the spectacle that was public executions.
They were trying to get rid of the mob atmosphere that attended these public executions. The fix was easy- simply move the execution time to an hour when most people are sleeping, getting rid of the boisterous crowds and accompanying extra media coverage.
Now, given the switch to banning public executions completely, you might at this point be wondering why the nighttime time slot endured and became popular enough for a time to become a common trope? One of the principal reasons often cited is simply to cut down on potential for more red tape in certain cases.
While there are exceptions, in many states in the U. If the execution is not carried out on the specified date, another warrant would be required which, as you might imagine for something as serious as killing someone legally and ensuring the executioner cannot be charged for murder , this is a lot of paperwork and not always a guarantee.
By starting at midnight, it gives the full 24 hours to work through potential temporary stays of execution, if any, before the time slot has ended and a new death warrant must be procured. That said, perhaps more importantly, and a reason cited by many a prison official, is simply the matter of staffing. Martinville, Louisiana, druggist Andrew Thomas, who once employed Francis. The U. Supreme Court ruled to allow a second execution to proceed, rejecting double jeopardy arguments. Louisiana successfully executed the year-old Francis by electric chair on May 9, Campbell was sentenced to die for the shooting death of year-old Charles Dials during a carjacking.
Hamm was sentenced to die for the slaying of motel clerk Patrick Cunningham. Sections U. Science Technology Business U. This undated photo provided by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction shows death row inmate Romell Broom, an Ohio death row inmate who survived a botched execution attempt in , who died Monday, Dec. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news.
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