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Who was Rainey Bethea? Nidal Hasan public execution broadcasting decision puts spotlight on 1936 hanging
Rainey Bethea was a 26-year-old Black man executed by public hanging in Owensboro, Kentucky, on August 14, 1936.
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The US Defense Department’s has decided to livestream the scheduled execution of Fort Hood mass shooter Nidal Hasan. The decision has put focus on one of America’s most infamous executions – that of Rainey Bethea in Kentucky nearly 90 years ago.
If Hasan’s execution proceeds as announced, it would mark the first publicly broadcast execution in US history, the first US military execution since 1961 and the first military execution by firing squad since World War II, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC).
Amid Nidal Hasan's live streamed public execution, Rainey Bethea’s 1936 hanging is widely remembered as the country’s last major public execution.
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Who was Rainey Bethea?
Rainey Bethea was a 26-year-old Black man executed by public hanging in Owensboro, Kentucky, on August 14, 1936.
Bethea confessed to raping and killing 70-year-old Lischia Edwards after breaking into her home. However, under Kentucky law at the time, he was prosecuted only for rape because it remained a capital offense, while murder no longer carried the death penalty.
Authorities erected the gallows in a parking lot in expectation of a huge public turnout. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, an estimated 20,000 spectators gathered to watch the execution. According to reports, newspapers described the execution a carnival-like atmosphere. Vendors sold food and souvenirs as thousands travelled to Owensboro.
The event deeply disturbed many witnesses, the Washington Post reported.
Rachel Abbott, who attended the execution as a five-year-old, later told WKU Public Radio that she suffered nightmares for years. “I still have tears running when I think of it,” she recalled decades later.
Although Bethea’s execution is commonly described as America’s last public execution, the DPIC notes that Roscoe “Red” Jackson was publicly hanged in Missouri in 1937 in front of about 500 spectators. That execution is regarded by the organization as the nation’s final public execution.
Nidal Hasan’s execution
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that Hasan’s scheduled execution on December 3 at Fort Hood, Texas, will be live streamed.
Hasan is a former US Army major, was sentenced to death in 2013 after killing 13 people and injuring 32 others during the 2009 Fort Hood shooting.
The Washington Post reported that no known US execution has ever been live streamed to the general public. Public executions largely disappeared in the United States after Bethea’s hanging generated widespread criticism.
Historians say growing concerns over public spectacle, unruly crowds and botched executions pushed states to move executions behind prison walls.
Michael Radelet, professor emeritus at the University of Colorado Boulder and an expert on capital punishment, told AP that officials increasingly viewed public executions as entertainment rather than justice.
Even in high-profile modern cases, access has remained tightly restricted.
When Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was executed in 2001, about 230 victims’ relatives and survivors watched through closed-circuit television. The execution was not broadcast publicly.
The Defense Department has not yet released detailed plans explaining the logistics around Hasan’s execution, while President Donald Trump told reporters that he's not yet decided whether the execution will be broadcast at all.
