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Archduke_Of_Beer t1_jd5uyls wrote

Reply to comment by cledus1911 in TIL the term "death row" comes from an assassination attempt on FDR. The shooter Giuseppe Zangara was sentenced to death, but there was already a convict awaiting execution, and FL law forbade them from sharing cells. A second cell was built, turning the "death cell" into the first "death row." by AdmiralAkbar1

Plus on top of that, until recently there were very few FEDERAL crimes that were prosecuted with the death penalty in mind. The FBI was still in it's infancy at this time.

Mostly it was up to the states to kill you unless you killed a federal politician or committed treason.

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