Allison Gamble offers this Guest Post, "Why It's Not a Good Idea to Televise Executions."
Public executions have been around about as long as there has been a legal system. In the past, these punishments have been designed to be as degrading as possible, not only taking away the life but also the dignity of a criminal in front of crowds of people. Hanging was perhaps the most popular method, but there were several other even more horribly degrading punishments that could be enacted upon a criminal in public. As we have moved into the modern era, we have done away with these cruel and unusual punishments, and they are even outlawed in the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution. Yet while our capital punishments are less graphic than in the past, there is still a pronounced interest in watching them, and with the advent of television and the Internet these executions can be watched by millions of people miles away from the event itself.
Why show punishments publicly? In the past, one explanation has been that publicizing executions discourages crime. In the modern day, when execution is typically much less violent, it is said to be a good political move, showing that the state is more humane than the murderers they are killing. Another argument is that of political transparency, that people should have a right to see what is being done in their name and with their tax dollars. Furthermore it is argued that people should be allowed to see for themselves whether or not lethal injections are humane, rather than rely on media reports to form the bases of their opinions.
To continue reading the Guest Post, click the link.
Fordham Law prof Deborah Denno posts, "Should Executions Be Televised?" at Encylopedia Britannica.
Whether executions should be televised is an intriguing question but any answer must be based partly on conjecture. No U.S. execution has ever been televised even though the issue has been raised a number of times over the years. Because I’m not a psychologist or a media expert, my speculation on the visual value of televising executions would be no more insightful than someone else’s. What I would like to discuss, however, are some of the legal issues involved in videotaping executions and how they might come to bear on a decision to televise them.
Only two U.S. executions have been videotaped—the first was the 1992 gas chamber execution of Robert Alton Harris in California and the second was the 2011 lethal injection execution of Andrew Grant DeYoung in Georgia. Regardless of the small number, I think mandatory videotaping of executions in the U.S. for limited viewing by relevant parties (judges, lawyers, etc.) is a good idea because it helps provide objective evidence of whether or not the execution violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
To continue reading Deborah Denno's post, click the link.
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