Would you like to see....
 

a live broadcast of an EXECUTION?

Would you buy a tape of an EXECUTION?

Do you feel that broadcasting such an event would deter anyone from committing crimes?

What are your thoughts?

NO

NO

and NO

I feel that if people are desperate enough they will commit crimes. It doesn't matter what the consequences are. Knowing that you could go to jail for life or even be put to death for something you have done has not stopped anyone from doing illegal things, and I suspect seeing it will only make them feel like a soldier taking his punishment like a man.

When one is executed, the observers are unable to see the person's face if executed by gas or electrocution (it's a legal thing, I think)

When one is executed by lethal injection, all one would see is expiration of breath from lungs. Which makes the whole thing less glamorous than Hollywood makes it. It's as if you had to kill vermin, like a mouse, in your house. Boring.

So, I don't have the need to see a criminal's execution for my own satisfaction and closure to whatever capital crime was done to one I loved. I don't know what I would do if some wacko murdered a person I cared for deeply, but I would try to find satisfaction that the Legal system worked in my case and the punishment fits the crime. Because, really, prison ain't no picnic...

I'm not talking about seeing the face. I mean, the ACT itself.

There have been discussions, recently and in previous years about this. For one, the Timothy McVeigh (sp?) execution.

I wouldn't want to watch it. Remember that movie, "Faces of Death", where they showed all of these real images of dead people, including in the mortuary? In high school, I wanted to see it so bad. Well, after I saw it I was physically sick. Now HBO has "Autopsy - the Dead Speak". Well, the more I watch an "Autopsy" show, the less it bothers me.

I think if we start broadcasting executions, we'll become desensitized to it, lessening the sheer horror of the punishment. The same way we have people that are so exposed to crime and prisoners that they have an "I don't care if I go to jail..." way of thinking), I think execution programs could assist in creating that sort of mentality.

Nope, nope, nope. I think it's sick to want to watch something like that. And this is coming from someone who has an odd obsession with death and dead people. But I would not want to watch someone die. Not to mention, that's a waste of money.

no...no interest in seeing someone burnt alive.

i've seen every volume of the "faces of death" i think it's like 8 volumes and not to many people can stomach it.

plus we should not make a marytr (sp) out of this timothy mcveigh, which is what he wants. they need to put him in jail with no kind of contact, that should drive him crazy.

Although it may soothe the pain of the family of the victims, it will have a profound impact on other people; and that impact could be alot different than what people think. Instead of deterring people, it could: 1)motivate some half-crazed person to commit a crime that would warrant their own execution for the publicity it would generate, 2)people just finding out they have aids(they belong in category one too)may choose this way to die-thus motivating them to commit some heinous crime, and finally 3)people watching for "entertainment" value will become less empathetic with people altogether without knowing it.

If Timothy McVeigh didn't kill any family members/friends of yours, what interest would you have in viewing his execution? Curiosity?

I think that's sick.

[This message has been edited by The Original Ape (edited May 03, 2001).]

Hi Sorors,

I am a Criminal Justice major and we have discussed this several times in class. In the past, executions have been shown to the public and studies have shown that it results in something called the brutilization effect. It means the crime rate actually goes up immediately following an execution. The death penalty does not deter crime it is strictly for punishment.

NO to all three questions.

No, I wouldn't buy a tape of it. But if it was on and I didn't have to pay anything, I may tune in at least for a little while out of curiosity.

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"22 Resurrected Jewels of DiSTinction"
Gamma Pi '01
Columbia College
4/12/01