The Gallows in 1877

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Mar 7, 1878

The Gallows in 1877.

THE hangman's record for the past year shows that eighty-three murderers were hanged in the United States. Of this number forty-seven were white, thirty-four colored, one Indian and one Chinaman ; four were hanged for indecent assaults ; one for burglary, eight for wife murder, one for filicide, and one for fratricide. There were three double executions, one triple, two quadruple, and one in which six men were hanged. Not a single woman was hanged ; the only one sentenced to death, Mrs. Louisa Lawsar, of Virginia, had her sentence commuted to imprisonment for life by the governor. Friday still maintains its reputation in the black list as the favorite day on which to enforce the death penalty, more murderers having been hanged on that day than on all others of the week combined. Forty-seven murderers were hanged on Friday, seventeen on Thursday, eight on Saturday, six on Monday, three on Tuesday, and two on Wednesday. There were five executions in January, five in February, six in March, six in April, ten in May, fifteen in June, eleven in July, one in August, five in September, none in October, nine in November and ten in December. Pennsylvania stands first in the list of the States for the greatest number of executions during the past year, South Carolina being second. The executions were distributed in twenty-five States, as follows : Pennsylvania sixteen, South Carolina twelve, North Carolina and California five each ; Missouri, Maryland, Georgia and Virginia, four each ; New York, Louisiana, Arkansas, Nevada and Tennessee, three each ; New Jersey, New Hampshire, Delaware, Alabama, Kentucky, Texas, Utah, Dakota, Oregon and Wyoming, one each.—Sel.