Executions have not been conducted in public in the United States for more than 60 years. However, many analyses have recently been asking the question of whether or not we should televise executions. With the recent conviction of Timothy McVeigh; it brought to the attention of Americans the question of being able to see your murderer die; will it comfort you or make all your losses and hardships last longer? Will children be able to view televised executions and what's from stopping them? These are some of the questions asked most frequently about capital punishment. As such, this essay will examine this complex topic and will include both proponents and opponents views of the subject. However, this essay will lean very heavily towards keeping televised executions illegal.
Chapter 1.
Introduction.
Americans have argued over the death penalty since the early days of the republic. Today, high profile cases provide frequent opportunities for debate between proponents and opponents of capital punishment. For example, in 1997, Timothy McVeigh was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1993 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, which killed one hundred and sixty eight people. In addition, private concerns Americans have about the effect of violent crime in their neighborhoods have been rising dramatically. Public or private, the debate over the death penalty revolves around three questions. First, is capital punishment allowable under the US constitution? Second, is capital punishment moral? And third, does it deter crime more than life in prison. The execution of convicted murderer Timothy McVeigh has provoked debate over televised executions. Would televised executions increase awareness of the death penalty and stop future crime? Or more importantly; should we keep public executions illegal to stop citizens from a gruesome sight that would introduce observers to violence. By allowing executions to be televised, the nation would be affected greatly, with no way of being able to regulate who views the execution, where it could be found, and would it ever stop being televised.