Preindustrial public executions were crowd spectacles where spectators’ vengeance could override legal clemency.

Evidence

One batch of condemned slaves [arrested in connection with an alleged anti-White plot], although they were given an opportunity to save themselves by confessing, steadfastly maintained their innocence until they were brought to the stake. At this point their resolution gave way and they admitted their guilt. But the crowd that had turned out to watch the execution was too large and its demands for vengeance too strong to permit the Negroes to escape by a last-minute confession: the sentence of the court was duly carried out and the Negroes were chained and burned at the stake. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 185

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Directly parallels the ritual sacrifice article’s treatment of executions as public ceremonies where crowd sentiment shapes the outcome.