This is a list of people executed in Kentucky. Since the reinstatement of capital punishment in the United States in 1976, three people have been executed in Kentucky. All three were executed for murder. All of the executions occurred at the Kentucky State Penitentiary (KSP) in Eddyville.[1]
No.
Name
Race
Age
Sex
Date of execution
Method
Victim(s)
Governor
1
Harold McQueen Jr.
White
44
M
July 1, 1997
Electrocution
Rebecca O'Hearn
Paul Patton
2
Edward Lee Harper Jr.
White
50
M
May 25, 1999
Lethal injection
Alice Harper and Edward Lee Harper Sr.
3
Marco Allen Chapman
White
37
M
November 21, 2008
Chelbi Sharon and Cody Sharon
Steve Beshear
As of 2022, Harold McQueen has been the only person executed by the Commonwealth of Kentucky involuntarily since 1976. Edward Lee Harper and Marco Allen Chapman both volunteered to be executed.[2] Harper dropped his remaining appeals while Chapman waived all non-statutory appeals during initial sentencing. (According to the Kentucky Revised Statutes, all sentences of death in Kentucky must be reviewed and affirmed by the Kentucky Supreme Court before they are carried out.)
Another execution of note in Kentucky was that of Rainey Bethea. Bethea was executed by hanging on 14 August 1936 for the rape of 70-year-old Lischia Edwards. He had also confessed to her murder by strangling but the Commonwealth indicted him only on the rape charge since that was the only capital crime for which the penalty was public hanging. Had Bethea been convicted and sentenced to death for murder (even with an additional rape conviction), the law as it was written at the time would have required Bethea to have been transported to Eddyville and executed in KSP's electric chair. It was to be the last public hanging in the United States; the execution was witnessed by thousands in downtown Owensboro.
The first person legally executed by the state of Kentucky was Jereboam O. Beauchamp who was hanged in 1826 for the murder of Solomon P. Sharp.
^"Execution Database". Death Penalty Information Center. Retrieved July 30, 2022.
^Williams, Chris (November 21, 2018). "Kentucky has not executed a death row inmate in 10 years, here's why". WHAS-TV. Archived from the original on July 30, 2022. Retrieved July 30, 2022.
and 25 Related for: List of people executed in Kentucky information
listofpeopleexecutedinKentucky. Since the reinstatement of capital punishment in the United States in 1976, three people have been executedin Kentucky...
listofpeopleexecuted by the U.S. state of Utah. Also killed Max David Jensen, but was executed for murdering Bushnell. Was tried and convicted in Davis...
The most recent execution was of Marco Allen Chapman, who was executed for two murders. Capital punishment inKentucky has been indefinitely suspended...
and as of 2023, the last person executed by the Commonwealth ofKentucky. He was executed on November 21, 2008, by lethal injection at the Kentucky State...
United Kingdom Capital punishment in the United States Lists ofpeopleexecutedin Texas Lists ofpeopleexecutedin the United States Norris, David (2009-05-17)...
row inmates inKentucky On death row: 57 (as of June 13, 2023[update]) Total number executed: 659 (1700–2010) Due to the high number of Louisiana death...
22 people have been executed for crimes committed while they were under the age of 18. All of the 22 executed individuals were males, and all were in states...
hanged inKentucky was Harold Van Venison, a 33-year-old African-American singer, who was privately executedin Covington on June 3, 1938. Listofpeople executed...
users of this method of execution. The U.S. had executed 1,283 people via lethal injection as of April 2017. The number ofpeopleexecuted annually in China...
Kentucky (US: /kənˈtʌki/ kən-TUK-ee, UK: /kɛn-/ ken-), officially the Commonwealth ofKentucky, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the...
listof notable people who were considered deities by themselves or others. Advaita Vedanta Apotheosis Arahitogami Brahman Christ myth theory Cult of...
death, and was executedin 1986. Joseph Carl Shaw was born to Mary and Melvin Shaw in Louisville, Kentucky and grew up in the suburb of Jeffersontown....
monetary reasons. Listof assassinated anticolonialist leaders Listof assassinations by car bombing Listof assassinated and executed heads of state and government...
killer who admitted to 13 murders in several states, starting from sometime in the 1900s and ending in 1914. He was executed for murdering a fellow convict...
murderer who was executed by lethal injection in Montana. Langford was executed for the July 1988 murders of Ned and Celene Blackwood, in Ovando, Montana...
Old Sparky is the nickname of the electric chairs in Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma,...
for three murders committed inKentucky and Washington between 1953 and 1955, one of them committed while he was serving in the United States Army. Convicted...
one girl between 1912 and 1920 in three states, also attempting to kill a woman in his native Kentucky. He was executed for killing 10-year-old Geneva...
killer who was executedin Nevada in 1985 for killing two women by strangulation. He was also convicted of murdering three other women in Texas and is believed...
of peopleexecutedin Texas Listof solved missing person cases Lists of Supreme Court Justices Listof United States crime-related lists Lists of United...
that resulted in the deaths of eight people. Coleman, who received death sentences in three states, was executed by the state of Ohio in 2002. Brown was...
Global Information