So, uh, why DO they always do executions at midnight?

[HEyHEY]

Because they aren't allowed to see more than a minute of that day?

[Endangered Specie]

1. It varies by state...

NC does it at 2am. Some do as early as 10pm



Doing it at night draws less publicity, fewer crowds, less chance of trouble, I suspect.

[alcibiades_mystery]

2. So as not to rile up the rest of the prisoners

It's a holdover, I think.

[hiaasenrocks]

3. It cuts down on the number of

people gathering outside the prison.

[ugarte]

4. Because Edgar Allan Poe writes the script...nt

[Wilms]

5. Because a hangin' at sundown is sooo 19th century. n/t

[quinnox]

6. My guess

because killing is a dark deed?

But I know they used to do hangings in broad daylight and invited the whole town including women and the children to watch and have a party in old west days.

[Poll_Blind]

11. If a society is going to have the death penalty, they should show it.

No, not on Fox. Though I'm sure they'd bid agressively for the rights. Then convince the penal system to carry out the executions in the nude to boost ratings.

I don't know how it'd be done so minors didn't see it- I guess in this age there's no way for them NOT to get ahold of the video.

But adults should see this. It's one hell of a deterrent to see someone be killed for comitting crimes. Our culture is so thoroughly twisted, I fear, that it would be more a social event than a learning one. Aside, like the destruction we're causing in Iraq: We pay for it and we should have a right to see it.

PB

[quinnox]

13. I agree

Executions are done in the publics name by the official government and so it should be a public event.
If they truly believe it's the right thing to do then it should be shown to society at large with no shame.

[northzax]

7. there's actually a logical reason

death warrants are good for a calendar day. Tookie Williams's for instance, authorizes the State of California to execute him on December 13, 2005. Doing the execution at the earliest possible hour allows for problems to develop and be dealt with, over the course of the day. Say there was a power outage, or the assigned doctor had a heart attack, or something along those lines they have 24 hours to find a replacement and still carry out the execution. If they did it at 11:59, and something went wrong, they'd have to stop at midnight, the law doesn't allow the sentence to be carried out after 23:59:59 on the 13th of December.

[Poll_Blind]

8. Interesting. n/t

PB

[HEyHEY]

12. Yeha, that sounds like it

[graywarrior]

9. Because that's how the Barbarians used to do it?

[johnnie]

10. It's not always midnight

In Ohio they have been in the morning hours. The last one was at about 10:30 or so if I remember correctly.