The power to take a life is the most serious power a government holds. It must never become entertainment. Reports that a military execution could be carried out in public or broadcast live should alarm every American, whatever they think of the crime or the punishment. Turning a person's death into a spectacle teaches viewers to treat suffering as content. It puts victims' families on display. It feeds the worst impulses in a country that already has too much violence. Where the law allows executions, they are grave acts carried out out of public view, with accountability through the courts and the official record, not through a livestream. No American should be encouraged to watch another human being die. Congress writes the rules for how federal and military punishments are carried out. Use that power. Prohibit public and live-streamed executions.
The power to take a life is the most serious power a government holds. It must never become entertainment. Reports that a military execution could be carried out in public or broadcast live should alarm every American, whatever they think of the crime or the punishment. Turning a person's death into a spectacle teaches viewers to treat suffering as content. It puts victims' families on display. It feeds the worst impulses in a country that already has too much violence. Where the law allows executions, they are grave acts carried out out of public view, with accountability through the courts and the official record, not through a livestream. No American should be encouraged to watch another human being die. Congress writes the rules for how federal and military punishments are carried out. Use that power. Prohibit public and live-streamed executions.
