I was reading about this the other day, how over in some of the Middle Eastern countries they still have public executions. In the past, I’ve seen videos of such, and of people getting hands and feet cut off for whatever offense, and they are quite disturbing. Which got me to thinking, what if the U.S. were to go back to having public executions. (The last one I believe was back in the 30’s) They used to have tremendous turn-outs back then, the attendants citing everything from closure to revenge. But would it actually be a deterrent to crime, or would it eventually begin to desensitize people to the point where nothing is disturbing anymore?
This probably belongs in IMHO.
Let’s assume we have CPTV – The Crime and Punishment Channel "All Crime, All the time!"©. As part of their line-up they’d have recreations of the crime that lead to the upcoming execution. There would be interviews with the condemned, families of the victims, etc. Finally, the show would end with the execution; followed by a wrap-up.
I think ratings would go through the roof! Millions would be made! Woohoo!
But what will happen socially? I think one of two things will happen: Either people will become inured to executions and accept them, or they will be shocked at actually seeing a death. I think the latter would happen. Other countries would point to us (as they do now) and say, “Human rights? Look! You’re killing people on teevee! Americans are hypocrites!”
Not much over half of Americans are in favour of capital punishment. If executions were made public, I think that people would turn against executions and they would be banned in the U.S. Right now capital punichment is an abstraction. People say, “Oh, so he found religion in prison? Fine. Jerk 'im to Jesus!” Or they take little notice and to them another execution is just a statistic. By showing people actually being killed “live and in colour” people will realize that another human being (an evil human being, but human nonetheless) is being snuffed. Soon there would be no more executions in the U.S.
Or I could be totally wrong and executions would be Roman-like entertainment.
I agree that this is better served in IMHO.
In Saudi Arabia they still have plenty of executions, several a week. I’ll allow you to draw your own inferences as to how much of a deterrent it is.