History

(Credit: Getty Images/Newsmakers)

*Johnson, Richard, and Jonathon Rivait. "A Short History of U.S. Capital Punishment." National Post News. N.p., 19 July 2013. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.

**Barrouquere, Brett. "Hanging Still Haunts Town 75 Years Later." Los Angeles Times. 28 Aug. 2011: A.26. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.

The United States has had a long, bloody and controversial history of executing its criminals, dating back to colonial times where criminals were exectuted for a multitude of reasons, including crimes such as treason, piracy, being a witch, stealing a horse,and several more. Over the years, standards of decency have evolved, and today, basically only the most heinous of crimes, first degree murder, is a capital crime*. Historically, there have been many methods of carrying out an execution, many of them public, such as this photo of the hanging of Rainey Bethea in 1936, America's final public hanging, before executions were privatized**.