This is a list of people executed in Kentucky. Since the reinstatement of

capital punishment in the United States In the United States, capital punishment is a legal penalty throughout the country at the federal level, in 27 states, and in American Samoa. It is also a legal penalty for some military offenses. Capital punishment has been abolished in 23 s ...

in 1976, three people have been

executed Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

. All three were executed for

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

. All of the executions occurred at the

Kentucky State Penitentiary The Kentucky State Penitentiary (KSP), also known as the "Castle on the Cumberland," is a maximum security and supermax prison with capacity for 856 prisoners located in Eddyville, Kentucky on Lake Barkley on the Cumberland River, about from ...

(KSP) in Eddyville. As of 2022, Harold McQueen has been the only person executed by the Commonwealth of Kentucky involuntarily since 1976. Edward Lee Harper and

Marco Allen Chapman Marco Allen Chapman (September 4, 1971 – November 21, 2008) was a convicted murderer and the most recent person executed by the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He was executed on November 21, 2008 by lethal injection at the Kentucky State Penitentia ...

both volunteered to be executed. Harper dropped his remaining appeals while Chapman waived all non-statutory appeals during initial sentencing. (According to the

Kentucky Revised Statutes Kentucky Revised Statutes (KRS) is the name given to the body of laws which govern the Commonwealth of Kentucky, United States. They are created pursuant to the Kentucky Constitution and must conform to the limitations set out in the Constitutions o ...

, all sentences of death in Kentucky must be reviewed and affirmed by the

Kentucky Supreme Court The Kentucky Supreme Court was created by a 1975 constitutional amendment and is the state supreme court of the U.S. state of Kentucky. Prior to that the Kentucky Court of Appeals was the only appellate court in Kentucky. The Kentucky Court of ...

before they are carried out.) Another execution of note in Kentucky was that of

Rainey Bethea Rainey Bethea ( – August 14, 1936) was the last person publicly executed in the United States. Bethea, who confessed to the rape and killing of a 70-year-old woman named Lischia Edwards, was convicted of her rape and publicly hanged in Owensb ...

. Bethea was executed by

hanging Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging i ...

on 14 August 1936 for the

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...

of 70-year-old Lischia Edwards. He had also confessed to her murder by strangling but the

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

indicted him only on the rape charge since that was the only capital crime for which the penalty was public hanging. Had Bethea been convicted and sentenced to death for murder (even with an additional rape conviction), the law as it was written at the time would have required Bethea to have been transported to Eddyville and executed in KSP's electric chair. It was to be the last public hanging in the United States; the execution was witnessed by thousands in downtown

Owensboro Owensboro is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Daviess County, Kentucky, United States. It is the fourth-largest city in the state by population. Owensboro is located on U.S. Route 60 and Interstate 165 about southwest of Lou ...

. The first person legally executed by the state of Kentucky was Jereboam O. Beauchamp who was hanged in 1826 for the murder of Solomon P. Sharp.

References

{{CapPun-US

People executed

See also

References