The American death penalty is older than the United States, beginning at Jamestown, and for three centuries the gallows stood in the public square. The episode follows the argument that narrowed it, from Beccaria and Benjamin Rush to Pennsylvania's first-degree murder law of 1794 and Michigan's 1846 abolition. It sets beside it the 1862 hanging of thirty-eight Dakota men at Mankato and ends with the last public execution in 1936.
Who's who
- George KendallJamestown council member shot by firing squad, the first recorded colonial execution
- Cesare BeccariaItalian jurist who argued certainty deters better than severity
- Benjamin Rush+2 more episodesPhiladelphia physician who argued against public punishments and death for murder
- William BradfordPennsylvania attorney general whose 1793 report shaped the 1794 law
- Abraham Lincoln+7 more episodesPresident who authorized 39 of 303 Dakota death sentences
- Alexander Ramsey+1 more episodeMinnesota governor who said the Dakota must be exterminated or driven out
- John Peter AltgeldIllinois governor who pardoned the surviving Haymarket defendants
- Rainey BetheaHanged in 1936 in the last public execution in the United States
Where it happens
- Jamestown, Virginia+1 more episodeSite of the first recorded execution in the English colonies
- Mankato, Minnesota+2 more episodesThirty-eight Dakota men hanged together in 1862
- Michigan+1 more episodeFirst in the English-speaking world to abolish the death penalty for murder
- Owensboro, KentuckySite of the last U.S. public execution, 1936
- Chicago, Illinois+15 more episodesHaymarket bombing and 1887 hangings
Timeline
- 1608George Kendall shot by firing squad at Jamestown
- 1764Beccaria publishes On Crimes and Punishments
- 1794Pennsylvania creates first-degree murder
- 1846Michigan abolishes the death penalty for murder
- December 26, 1862Thirty-eight Dakota men hanged at Mankato
- August 14, 1936Last public execution in the United States
Still debated
Kendall's charge, mutiny or spying for Spain, and his date are uncertain, and the settler death toll in the 1862 war varies by estimate. Historians disagree whether Lincoln is best remembered for the 264 spared or the 38 hanged. Whether the founding settles the matter is argued.
Connected episodes in other series
The Presidents Who Inherited Andrew Jackson's PlaybookAs Long as the Grass Grows · Episode 10Also features Abraham Lincoln
The Republic's Nervous SystemNeither Snow Nor Rain · Episode 1Also features Benjamin Rush
Three Hundred Dollars: How Money Bought a Civil War ExitGreeting: America and the Draft · Episode 3Also features Abraham Lincoln
Manifest Destiny and the Road to WarTake the Land, Not the People · Episode 1Also features Abraham Lincoln