Death Penalty question

Factual Questions
1

OK…I swear I have seen this here before but I will be darned if I can find it.

Why do most executions take place in the wee hours of the morning?

2

i know i’d be more likely to throw the switch in the morning…

but really, i’m not sure that’s true. I’m in TX, and most of the executions that come to mind were in the 6pm-8pm time frame…

3

My informal understanding is that the states prefers to carry out the sentence as soon as possible on the date set for execution – which is to say soon after midnight. Less time for the condemned to sit and stew; less time for protesters to get organized; less media attention. But I could be wrong.

4

I agree with Jodi. I have read that the primary reason is to make the protests less visible.

5

It’s also tradition. People have been executed at midnight long before there were death penalty protests. I suspect the original rationale was that they wanted to get it over as soon as possible on the day of execution.

6

The time varies from state to state, as Cecil points out.

7

Thanks Bibliophage I knew Cecil had something on it. Not sure why I couldn’t find it.

Still ambiguous about the time though. I think originally it may have been to avoid a crowd but that hardly seems the case anymore. If people know they show up anyway so why not do it at mid-day other than the whole soon as possible on the day of thing. Let’s save on overtime for cripes sake!

8

According to Execution Methods Used by States Texas changed the time of execution from midnight to 6 a.m., so the state could save on overtime.

9

Now this I didn’t know. That would blow my theory about avoiding protests all to hell. Do you have any more information RealityChuck?

10

I reckon it goes along with what I’ve heard was from Chairman Mao: “Condemn in public, punish in private.”

Only a ghoul wants to see the uji details of justice being carried out in these cases. But everyone wants to know that the malefactors are punished. More visible executions might generate sympathy for the prisoner, which is not desirable. They also would likely generate an insensitivity and even a taste for such spectacles. For examples from history, see the Tyburn crowds of 18th Century London and the Gladiators of the Roman world.

I’d like to see an option added to sentencing: “Death in Prison” as opposed “Life in Prision”, by which I mean a guaranteed, unparole-able, unalterable life in prison without parole.