List of people executed in Kentucky
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 in Eddyville.
Harold McQueen Jr. has been the only person executed by the Commonwealth of Kentucky involuntarily since 1976. Edward Lee Harper Jr. and Marco Allen Chapman both volunteered to be executed. Harper dropped his remaining appeals while Chapman waived all non-statutory appeals during initial sentencing.
Another execution of note in Kentucky was that of Rainey Bethea. Bethea was executed by hanging on August 14, 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, 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.