Why we love the - Death Penalty ! - Law - http://maxpages.com/prisonministry/DeathPenalty

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We ask why people love the Death Penalty and we read about people who look the
DeathPenalty in the Face,
read and ask why people love the Death Penalty

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Discus the DeathPenalty, christian or not, why love so many the DeathPenalty?Read following
and speak about it.

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USA//KY.

Hangman's tale: Rainey Bethea's 15 minutes of fame

Only in death did Rainey Bethea's life become worthy of historical
mention. Poor, black and criminally inclined, his date with the
gallows became assured after his conviction in the
rape and murder of an affluent 70-year-old white widow
in Owensboro, Ky.

Indeed, the most remarkable thing Bethea ever did was
die before 20,000 people. Bethea's 15 minutes of fame,
which came at the end of his life and at the end of a
rope, brought a belated end to a ritual that had
endured since colonial times. His passing, on Aug. 14,
1936, marked the last public execution in America.

Bethea's date with death was set for a Friday, the
traditional day of execution in Kentucky because Good
Friday was the day that Christ had died. Shortly after
sunrise, at 5:21 a.m., Bethea was walked out of the
jail, flanked by two deputies and trailed by a
Catholic priest. A mass of restless onlookers parted
like the Red Sea to let them pass.

Most spectators, who hailed from 9 counties and 5 states, had
been up all night milling about and
eating the snacks hawked by children. Except to elbow
for a better position, the predominantly white crowd
remained fairly well behaved.

When Bethea reached the gallows, he sat down on the
first step. With manacled hands he took off his shoes
and put on a clean pair of socks. Then he rose,
padding up 13 stairs to the hangman's platform.

An account of the hanging is contained in "The Last
Public Execution in America," a vivid and compelling
1992 book by Perry T. Ryan, a former Kentucky
prosecutor.

Ryan wrote that "Bethea tested the trap doors with his
left foot. Then he stepped onto the doors, over a
large `X.' Bethea turned and faced east, looking into
the rising sun for the last time.

"Although given an opportunity to address the crowd,
Bethea said nothing. Father Lemmons raised his hand to
hush the crowd. The crowd quieted, just standing
there, transfixed."

Phil Hanna, who'd supervised 70 Southern hangings,
pulled a long black hood over Bethea's head. A heavy
leather strap was wrapped around his ankles, another
put on his thighs and a third over his arms and chest.
A heavy hemp noose, oiled to make the knot tighten
swiftly, was put over his neck.

At 5:32 a.m. Hanna gave a pre-arranged signal to
Deputy Arthur Hash, to pull the trigger on the trap
door. Hash was in such a drunken stupor that he did
nothing. Hanna reportedly shouted: "`Do it now!'"

"Hash fumbled. Another deputy leaned into the lever.
The trap door opened and Bethea fell eight feet. The
rope tightened and he swung only slightly at its end.
His neck broken, his head was bent sharply, almost
touching his right shoulder. A physician stepped onto
the top of railroad ties near the base of the gallows
to feel Bethea's pulse."

Fourteen minutes after the trap door opened, Bethea
was dead. Only 37 days had elapsed between his arrest
and his execution.

Ryan wrote that after the execution, the drunken Hash
staggered down the steps of the gallows declaring,
"I'm drunk as hell. I am getting away from this town
as soon as I can. Well, anyhow, its over."

Bethea's body was hauled away in a reed basket
reserved for paupers. Afterward, Sheriff Florence
Thompson, a widow and mother of four, told reporters
that she had decided against flipping the lever
herself because, "I did not want people pointing to my
children and saying, their mother was the one who
hanged a Negro at Owensboro."

Ryan contends that another factor came into play when
the national media wrote their stories. Newspapers had
paid dearly to get reporters to the "boonies" to see
the first woman in U.S. history perform an execution.
And journalists were livid that Thompson had ducked
the task. Wielding pens like clubs they turned their
wrath on the crowd and on the town, exaggerating an
event which needed no embellishment.

Stories portrayed Owensboro as "The Center of
Barbarism," and as the proud sponsor of a "Picnic
Hanging" and a "Roman Holiday." Headlines screamed:
"Children Picnic as Killer Pays," and "They Ate Hot
Dogs While a Man Died on the Gallows."

One wire service dispatch read: "Cheering, booing,
eating and joking, 20,000 persons witnessed the public
execution of Rainey Bethea, 22, frightened Negro boy,
at Owensboro, Ky., yesterday. In callous, carnival
spirit, the mob charged the gallows after the trap was
sprung, tore the executioner's hood from the corpse,
chipping the gallows for souvenirs. Mothers attended
with babes in arms, hot dog vendors hawked their wares
and a woman across the street held a necktie breakfast
for relatives. The woman sheriff, at the last minute,
decided not to spring the trap."

An embarrassed Kentucky General Assembly quickly
abolished public executions. Those states still
sanctioning them followed suit making the hanging of
Bethea the last public execution in America.

(source: Tulsa World)

Maybe God Wants

Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people
before meeting the right one
so that when we finally meet the right person,
we will know how to be grateful for that gift.

When the door of happiness closes,
another opens,
but often times we look so long at the closed door
that we don't see the one which has been opened for us.

The best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch
and swing with, never say a word,
and then walk away feeling like
it was the best conversation you've every had.

It's true that we don't know what we've got
until we lose it,
but it's also true that we don't know what we've been missing until it
arrives.

Don't go for looks; they can deceive.
Don't go for wealth; even that fades away.
Go for someone who makes you smile
because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright. Find the one
that makes your heart smile.

May you have enough happiness to make you sweet,
enough trials to make you strong,
enough sorrow to keep you human,
enough hope to make you happy.

Always put yourself in others' shoes.
If you feel that it hurts you,
it probably hurts the other person, too.

The happiest of people don't
necessarily have the best of everything;
they just make the most of
everything that comes along their way.

When you were born, you were crying
and everyone around you was smiling.
Live your life so that when you die,
you're the one who is smiling
and everyone around you is crying. ( I like that one)

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Reiner Stensgaard Goldau
Dove Prison Ministry International
Ydbyvej 184	DK - 7760 Hurup - Thy
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goldau@adslhome.dk

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Page Updated Sat Apr 7, 2001 3:01pm EDT