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Garmincure3 execution by hanging9/23/2023 Over 20,000 people came to Owensboro, Kentucky to witness Bethea's execution. In 1936 Rainey Bethea was hanged after he was convicted of rape. Since the introduction of the electric chair in 1890, the number of hangings have steadily decreased. These abolitionists believed that public execution would eventually lead the general population to cry out against the capital punishment, eventually putting an end to hanging in the United States. However, most opponents of hanging opposed these laws. Fourteen years later in 1849, fifteen more states also enacted such laws. Violence and drunkenness often ruled towns far into the night after 'justice had been served.' By 1835, five states including, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts enacted laws providing for private hangings. Fighting and pushing would often break out as people jockeyed for the best view of the hanging or the corpse! Onlookers often cursed the widow or the victim and would try to tear down the scaffold or the rope for keepsakes. Many others considered them a major community event and still others took to them as an opportunity to become unruly as with modern sporting events: 'Sometimes tens of thousands of eager viewers would show up to view hangings local merchants would sell souvenirs and alcohol. Starting in the early 1830s, public hangings were considered by many to be cruel.
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