NC GOP lawmaker calls for public hangings, including for abortion providers

A Republican lawmaker from North Carolina is seeking a return to the days of public hangings, according to WRAL-TV.

Rep. Larry Pittman delivered an email this week to every member of the state's General Assembly, describing that hangings needed to be reinstated as a "deterrent to crime," including those who provide abortions.

“We need to make the death penalty a real deterrent again by actually carrying it out," Pittman wrote. "Every appeal that can be made should have to be made at one time, not in a serial manner. If murderers (and I would include abortionists, rapists, and kidnappers, as well) are actually executed, it will at least have the deterrent effect upon them. For my money, we should go back to public hangings, which would be more of a deterrent to others, as well.”

Pitmman, whose radical position was driven by an inmate bragging about life in prison and delaying his execution date, said he intended the email to be sent to just one colleague instead of the entire chamber.

The last legal public hanging in America occurred in 1936 in Owensboro, Kentucky.

(H/T Think Progress)