Lynching, that is, execution without trial, appeared in 1860, on the eve of the War of Independence in the United States between the north and the slave-owning south.
The founder of this method of punishment is considered an American judge Charles Lynch, who considered the legal judiciary insufficient to establish law and order. The wartime proved to be fertile ground for the emergence and development of wild arbitrariness, which usually ends with hanging or burning at the stake those sentenced, whose guilt was not always proven. Lynch's court is a ruthless reprisal that took place under the cheers of a thirsty thirst.
In most cases, the Lynch Court extended to blacks, who in fact often committed crimes against whites, stole, stole cattle, raped women.
However, the Negro could lynch even on simple suspicion, without presenting evidence. This was the essence of the cruel and often unjust act of retaliation called the Lynch Court. After the War of Independence in 1865, the northerners actually occupied the southern states. They forced the southerners to sell land and property for nothing. Slavery was abolished, blacks were given freedom and could do anything.
But the black population, having received freedom, did not know how to use it, yesterday's slaves got drunk and committed crimes in droves. The punishment followed almost immediately, the criminal was caught and killed in the nearby forest, applying the Lynch Court to him.
In the first post-war years, retaliation groups, the so-called Ku Klux Klan units, were organized. The name of these combat groups comes from the characteristic triple click of the shutter of the Winchester’s multi-shot carbine, reminiscent of the sound of the Ku Klux Klan. The symbol of the KKK was a fiery wooden cross mounted in an open area. The cross burned for several hours in a row and the Ku Klux Klaners carried out their ritual actions, the end of which was the murder of the next convicted criminal.
In 1870-74, the KKK was outlawed by the US federal government, but this did not change much, the blacks continued to be executed without trial, although without ritual processions in white hoodies and caps. The self-proclaimed judges had enough work, there were many crimes, and not only among blacks. White cattle thieves came across at the scene of the crime and death was waiting for them on the same day, by hanging on a nearby tree.
The same fate awaited any thief, robber or robber. Murderers and rapists were also ruthlessly destroyed without trial. The Lynch court gradually acquired even a semblance of legitimacy; more and more often judges, prosecutors, and officials vested with power participated in it.
In the 19th century, a wave of attacks by members of retaliation groups against prisons and courts took place in the United States. It seemed to many that the judicial system of America was clumsy, too liberal, inveterate criminals received too mild punishment, short sentences for brutal murders and other crimes. Already convicted by the court were dragged out of prisons and killed right on the street, there were several cases in which the convict was taken from the escort police and was executed in the courthouse. The judge did not interfere with the barbaric actions of the crowd. The Lynch Law, which set the tone for American judicial practice for a long time, was in effect.
