Opposed to Friday Hangings
Interesting stories from newspapers of yore.
As a historian, I am often searching through primary and secondary source materials for my research. The internet has been a great blessing in this process and has given me access to newspapers that go back for hundreds of years. Whenever I am looking at a newspaper during my research into a specific topic, I try to make it a point to scan these newspapers for any other interesting news or stories. I keep a file of these interesting articles and odd news that I have discovered over the years. This seems like the perfect forum to share such items. Hopefully, you too will find these old news stories interesting.
Today’s news comes from The Salt Lake Herald (Salt Lake City, Utah) and was published on January 18, 1891. This short piece of news is titled, “Opposed to Friday Hangings;” and, it reports the personal preference of a judge in Pine Bluffs, Arkansas.
[O]ne day recently, Judge Elliott sentenced a murderer to be hanged on Thursday, Jan. 29. He stated that he “never had and never would order the execution of a man on a Friday, because on that day Christ was crucified,” and he “would not insult the Saviour’s memory by sentencing a murderer to die on the day upon which the Son of God sacrificed his life for humanity’s sake.”
Upon reflecting on Judge Elliott’s personal Christian views and particular ruling preference, I imagine that any man sentenced to be hung for his crimes would have preferred that Judge Elliott selected the day after Friday, or possibly the following Monday, and not the day before, Thursday. At least that is what I would prefer considering the circumstances.
~ my Brain