How come when someone is put to death it's done at midnight?

Maine-ah

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Mon Dec-12-05 07:06 PM
Original message

How come when someone is put to death it's done at midnight?

just wonderin'

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napi21

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Mon Dec-12-05 07:08 PM
Response to Original message

1. Most are, but not all.

I know some are scheduled at 6PM too.

I suspect the 12:01 thing has something to do with that being the first minutes of the day of sentence.

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patrice

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Mon Dec-12-05 07:10 PM
Response to Reply #1

4. Is Tookie's execution tonight then?

I missed that.

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napi21

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Mon Dec-12-05 07:22 PM
Response to Reply #4

9. Yes. 12:01 AM 12/13/2005 n/t

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Lautremont

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Mon Dec-12-05 07:09 PM
Response to Original message

2. Because it's a creepy thing to do and creepy things happen at midnight.

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Midnight Rambler

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Mon Dec-12-05 07:09 PM
Response to Original message

3. Probably because it sounds ominous

Nobody executes people at three o'clock sharp. It just doesn't have the same aura, the same cajones if you will, as midnight. Or high noon, for that matter.

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Avalux

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Mon Dec-12-05 07:10 PM
Response to Original message

5. Because it's grotesque and happens under cover of darkness.

I just read Rita Crosby will be a witness though - so we're sure to get plenty of media coverage - woo hoo! :sarcasm:

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SoCalDem

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Mon Dec-12-05 07:12 PM
Response to Reply #5

6. Is she "making news" again???

:rofl:

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TallahasseeGrannie

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Mon Dec-12-05 07:34 PM
Response to Reply #5

14. Please tell me you are kidding

Do you think she can stop smoking long enough to go inside?

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Avalux

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Mon Dec-12-05 07:35 PM
Response to Reply #14

16. Not kidding.

There's a couple of threads about it in GD. Death as sensational media event! We humans are so inhumane.

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Synnical

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Mon Dec-12-05 07:15 PM
Response to Original message

7. Electric Chair set precedent?

http://www.gotessays.com/essays/1027/index.php

The first method used was in New York in 1890 . . . When someone was executed with the electric chair the ceremony usually took place close to midnight. This was because at that hour they knew not many people were using electricity; the chair needs thirty thousand watts or the equivalent of four hundred seventy-five-watt light bulbs turning on at the same time. More than one shock was usually required to kill the criminal, so it drained a massive amount of electricity from the power company. Since the electric chair, midnight has become the fixed execution time.

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XemaSab

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Mon Dec-12-05 07:21 PM
Response to Reply #7

8. Interesting bit of trivia

Can't imagine a hanging, death by firing squad, or any other primitive method at midnight.

Though wasn't it a tradition to be shot at dawn?

(I'm anti DP BTW)

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mcscajun

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Mon Dec-12-05 07:33 PM
Response to Reply #8

13. I don't know about tradition, but sure, many executions by firing squad

took place at dawn, with little public spectacle; hangings were practically festival events, and usually done at Noon, but again, this wasn't fixed.

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hlthe2b

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Mon Dec-12-05 07:25 PM
Response to Reply #7

10. Ghoulish trivia.....

Firing squads on the other hand only in daylight? Traditionally at dawn?

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Dead_Parrot

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Mon Dec-12-05 07:27 PM
Response to Original message

11. an eleventh-hour reprieve....

...wouldn't help if you'd been executed at eight o'clock.

(Sorry!)

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Catfight

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Mon Dec-12-05 07:29 PM
Response to Original message

12. If I remember correctly, Bundy was fried early in the morning, like

7am or something, I remember it being announced on the radio. We're a barbaric civilization if we still think killing someone is considered justice. Call me a heart bleeder, it's just plain wrong.

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TallahasseeGrannie

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Mon Dec-12-05 07:35 PM
Response to Reply #12

15. Easy way out for everybody

except the guy who has to do it. We ask them to do our dirty work. It's not right. We have no right.

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Synnical

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Mon Dec-12-05 11:58 PM
Response to Reply #12

18. Yeah 7:15 AM

Those on Fla Death Row are scheduled for 6PM execution. (Excuse me while I throw-up)

Florida has a Death Row Fact Sheet:

http://www.dc.state.fl.us/oth/deathrow/

In January 2000, the Florida Legislature passed legislation that allows lethal injection as an alternative method of execution in Florida.

This, after OLD SPARKY tortured Pedro Medina in 1997.

-Cindy in Fort Lauderdale

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YellowRubberDuckie

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Mon Dec-12-05 07:51 PM
Response to Original message

17. Depends on the state actually...

Here in Oklahoma, they do it at 6pm. I think the reason they do it at 12:01 is to get it done ASAP.
Duckie

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SammyWinstonJack

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Tue Dec-13-05 12:05 AM
Response to Original message

19. Well if something ghoulish is going to be done, what better time to do it

then midnight?

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