# Would you attend a public execution? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 13, 2007, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-attend-a-public-execution/387794 "2007-01-13T03:41:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-attend-a-public-execution/387794/1 "2007-01-13T03:41:29Z")
Or watch one on TV? Why or why not? Would the method of execution matter ( eg hanging, guillitone, lethal injection, fire, etc)? Would the who the condemned was matter? ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-attend-a-public-execution/387794/2 "2007-01-13T03:50:35Z")
Probably not. I don’t support the death penalty. The methods of execution are kinda boring so it wouldn’t be very entertaining or anything. You already know what the end result will be. It would just very depressing scene to me. If we sentenced people gladatorial combat against lions or something I might watch. ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-attend-a-public-execution/387794/3 "2007-01-13T04:04:13Z")
I used to think that I would watch but a recent thread about a video of a guy that died from having sex with a horse made me reconsider. I watched the video with detached interest, but later I thought, what if that were his last moments on Earth? That kind of creeped me out. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-attend-a-public-execution/387794/4 "2007-01-13T06:02:14Z")
I would not. I do not agree with the death penalty and would feel like my presence would somehow signify approval of the event taking place. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_C](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Captain\_C](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_C)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-attend-a-public-execution/387794/5 "2007-01-13T06:11:56Z")
Pretty much what **boytyperanma** said. Gladitorial style would be cool, but if I want to see someone being put under with injections I could just go watch a surgery or somethng. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-attend-a-public-execution/387794/6 "2007-01-13T09:48:20Z")
There is a photo burned into my brain that was on the Internet a few years ago that showed a lynching with a crowd of people watching, somewhere in the southern part of the USA…and at the front of the photo was a young (white) teenage couple smiling at the camera with the body (bodies?) hanging from a tree. Without the background photo, the couple looked like they could have been having a wonderful night at a school dance, but considering the background view, it was just disgusting and I simply hated those two people…but at the same time, I was oddly fascinated by the whole, horrible event. Google “public lynching” using “images” and you will get a few photos that might make you wonder if you would want to be a part of that audience. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-attend-a-public-execution/387794/7 "2007-01-13T13:22:45Z")
[QUOTE=DMark] There is a photo burned into my brain that was on the Internet a few years ago that showed a lynching with a crowd of people watching, somewhere in the southern part of the USA…and at the front of the photo was a young (white) teenage couple smiling at the camera with the body (bodies?) hanging from a tree. [/QUOTE] I’m not a native Southerner taking his routine umbrage at this assumption, but in the interest of fighting ignorance I must point out tha the lynching photo you saw with the dopey girl and her boyfriend (as well as the guy who looks like Floyd the Barber pointing at the corpses) was taken in **Marion Indiana** in 1930. [Three young black teenagers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Shipp) staged a lovers-lane robbery where the man was killed (but, despite the rumor that inflamed the mob, the woman was not raped) The older two were dragged from the jail and strung up. According to the third, 16-year old, James Cameron, a woman who was possibly the Virgin Mary appeared and commanded the mob to spare him (perhaps despairing not having done this for her own son). He served four years in prison and later returned to his native Wisconsin and founded the Black Holocaust in Milwaukee, dying in 2005. As for public executions: coincidence or not, in most societies where executions are held publicly, violent death is so commonplace that its judicial application is not a novelty. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-attend-a-public-execution/387794/8 "2007-01-13T13:35:48Z")
Does the Saddam cellphone video count? ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-attend-a-public-execution/387794/9 "2007-01-13T14:01:58Z")
I’ve seen a few people die without the advent of an executioner so don’t see any reason to see someone killed. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-attend-a-public-execution/387794/10 "2007-01-13T14:03:38Z")
Mind you I wouldn’t have minded being around when Marilyn Monroe and Michael Hutchence died. I would have saved them but still…I would KNOW. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-attend-a-public-execution/387794/11 "2007-01-13T14:06:36Z")
Yes ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-attend-a-public-execution/387794/12 "2007-01-13T14:11:01Z")
Then yes. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-attend-a-public-execution/387794/13 "2007-01-13T14:14:38Z")
For the right person. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-attend-a-public-execution/387794/14 "2007-01-13T14:21:47Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by **Siam Sam** > Then yes. I was saying yes I would attend a public execution, not answering your question. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-attend-a-public-execution/387794/15 "2007-01-13T14:33:20Z")
Oh, my bad. Well, I would attend one, too. And I did watch the Saddam video, in case that counts. ---
**Author:** ![4.66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/2bfe46/32.png) [@4.66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/4.66)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-attend-a-public-execution/387794/16 "2007-01-13T17:51:30Z")
I’m not in favor of the death penalty. If public executions were part of my society though, I would not want to close my eyes to it. I’d go and watch. Once. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-attend-a-public-execution/387794/17 "2007-01-13T19:45:48Z")
[QUOTE=DMark] There is a photo burned into my brain that was on the Internet a few years ago that showed a lynching with a crowd of people watching, somewhere in the southern part of the USA…and at the front of the photo was a young (white) teenage couple smiling at the camera with the body (bodies?) hanging from a tree. Without the background photo, the couple looked like they could have been having a wonderful night at a school dance, but considering the background view, it was just disgusting and I simply hated those two people…but at the same time, I was oddly fascinated by the whole, horrible event. Google “public lynching” using “images” and you will get a few photos that might make you wonder if you would want to be a part of that audience. [/QUOTE] The picture you’re thinking of might have been from [Without Sanctuary: Photographs and Postcards of Lynching in America](http://www.withoutsanctuary.org/main.html). It contains about 80 images of various lynching scenes, mainly from the early twentieth century. A fascinating yet horrifying and macabre exhibition. ---
**Author:** ![kung\_fu\_lola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f4b2a3/32.png) [@kung\_fu\_lola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kung_fu_lola)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-attend-a-public-execution/387794/18 "2007-01-13T19:53:44Z")
No. Not under any circumstance. Not ever. And I wouldn’t watch video of it, either. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-attend-a-public-execution/387794/19 "2007-01-13T20:35:29Z")
A public, legal, execution? Yes absolutely. Firstly, justice must be seen to be done. Secondly, to register my protest at the execution: I don’t believe in the Death Penalty. ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-attend-a-public-execution/387794/20 "2007-01-13T21:27:42Z")
I would attend so I could protest capital punishment. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-attend-a-public-execution/387794.md?page=2)