The Dog that Stopped Barking: Mass Legal Executions in 21st Century America

Paul H. Blackman and Vance McLaughlin
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Paul H. Blackman: Independence Institute, 727 E. 16th Avenue, Denver, CO 80203, USA
Vance McLaughlin: Department of Criminal Justice, Jacksonville State University, Jacksonville, AL 36265, USA

Laws, 2014, vol. 3, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: During the first two centuries of European colonization of what is now the United States, executions for a variety of offenses relatively frequently involved mass executions, that is, the execution for the same criminal incident of four or more persons. By the time of American independence, some of those crimes had largely ceased to exist or to elicit such punishment, like witchcraft and piracy. However, the punishment of slaves and Indians kept the percentage of executed persons involved in mass executions significant, if not large. During the last quarter of the 19th and first six decades of the 20th century, mass legal executions diminished as a percentage and were largely limited to punishing robbery-related homicides, including felony-homicides of conspirators. Throughout that period, the end of mass executions for a particular crime presaged the end of all executions for that offense, and the last mass legal execution occurred in 1960.

Keywords: Colonial America; United States; capital crimes; mass executions; aggravated homicide; felony-murder (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D78 E61 E62 F13 F42 F68 K0 K1 K2 K3 K4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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