who was the last person publicly executed in the us
Rainey Bethea Rainey Bethea (c. 1909[2] â€“ August 14, 1936) was the last person to be publicly executed in the United States. Bethea, who confessed to the rape and murder of a 70-year-old woman named Lischia Edwards, was convicted of her rape and publicly hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky. Mistakes in performing the hanging and the surrounding media circus contributed to the end of public executions in the United States.