Billy Bailey, the last man hanged in American history, was executed on January 25, 1996, in Delaware. He was convicted of the murder of elderly couple, Gilbert and Clara Lambertson, during a robbery. Bailey spent nearly two decades on death row before facing his ultimate punishment. Despite numerous appeals and pleas for clemency, Bailey's sentence was carried out, marking the end of an era in American capital punishment. This case seemed especially barbaric since he chose hanging after the state changed to lethal injection. Billy stated “Asking a man to choose how to die is more barbaric than hanging.” His story serves as a stark reminder of the complexities and moral dilemmas surrounding the death penalty in the United States along with questions on how to better help the people who grew up in a cycle of “filth and poverty.”

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