Quote:
Poll: Many Americans Support TV Executions
21 Percent Would Pay To Watch Bin Laden Put To Death
POSTED: 4:19 pm EST February 23, 2004
NEW YORK -- Two-thirds of Americans polled last month said they support the idea of televising executions -- and 21 percent said they'd pay to watch Osama bin Laden put to death.
Eleven percent said they would pay to see Saddam Hussein executed.
The opinions on executions came in a poll taken by Harris Interactive for the Trio cable channel.
Even though the poll found support for the idea, 54 percent said they wouldn't watch an execution on television.
Harris Interactive interviewed 1,017 Americans aged 18 or older at random Jan. 24-26. The margin of error for the sample is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
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The public spectacle of the execution is as old as government. I have a hard time thinking of a culture that didn't have public displays of the death penalty. It was both a warning and entertainment.
Now lets get back to today in the US. Does the death penalty lose its impact because it is so 'secret'? Its done in about the same fashion as one would put their dog to sleep (in most states) and is rarely even mentioned unless some group is having some vigil outside and its a slow news day.
But lets go one step more. Because the death penalty is so sanitized and hidden now, could that be a factor in its continued approval in the US? A majority of the US population favors the death penalty being an option. Could perhaps showing executions change minds?