No, public hanging is not listed as punishment for treason in US Code | Fact check

Hannah Hudnall, USA TODAY
·4 min read

The claim: US Code says people found guilty of treason should be publicly hanged

A March 3 Instagram video (direct link, archive link) shows a picture of a man with text across the bottom that says, "The following is the U.S. penalty for TREASON."

A small card labeled, "Title 18 U.S. Code section 2381," is then shown. The card says those found guilty of "capital felony treason" will be taken "to the nearest busy intersection and at high noon hung by the neck until dead."

The post garnered more than 600 likes in less than two weeks.

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Our rating: False

The U.S. Code has never mentioned public hangings as a punishment for treason. Public hangings have been outlawed in every state for more than 80 years.

No public hangings mentioned in US Code

Title 18 U.S. Code section 2381, the passage cited in the video, defines treason as "Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere."

The code says those guilty of treason "shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States."

But there's no reference to hanging. The first code, published in 1925, makes no mention of public hangings for people convicted of treason, nor do any of the revisions that followed, based on copies in the Library of Congress reviewed by USA TODAY.

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The last state-sanctioned public hanging was held in Owensboro, Kentucky, in 1936, when a black man named Rainey Bethea was charged with raping an elderly white woman, according to The New York Times. Kentucky was the only state still conducting public hangings at the time, and it outlawed the practice two years later.

Treason cases are also rare, and prosecutions for the crime have essentially disappeared in the modern day, according to the National Constitution Center. Prosecutions were mainly associated with armed conflicts, such as World War II, and the only person convicted of the crime since 1957 was Adam Gadahn, who was indicted for treason in 2006 for his participation in several al-Qaida propaganda videos.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

PolitiFact also debunked the claim.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Public hanging not a punishment for treason in US Code | Fact check