Concluding my recent series of posts on the subject of the US death sentence and death row inmates ..... I'll ask a question.
Did you know that many death sentence states in the USA require people with no connection to the crime to attend each execution that is carried out?
Well they do. In something of a hangover from the days when hangings were carried out public, these independent attendees are considered public eyewitnesses, and go to executions standing in the place of the general public.
Virginia for example, is one such state. The volunteers are picked up by the prison bus and taken to Greensville Correctional Facility in Jarratt, Virginia where executions take place. Murderers such as Douglas Buchanan, Jr, who was convicted of murdering his father, stepmother, and two stepbrothers and was executed by lethal injection and whose final words in 1998 were "Get the ride started. I'm ready to go.", are observed dying, and in some states could look at the observers as they died.
With the slowing down of the rates of executions, it was thought that the public taste for attending the executions was also ending. This view seemed to be confirmed when recently Wendy Kelley, the director of the Arkansas corrections department, was forced to appeal for execution viewing volunteers as they didn't have enough people who were willing to attend their planned executions.
The Arkansas state law requires at least six "respectable citizens" to attend every execution to "verify that the execution was conducted in the manner required by law." She needn't have worried .... there was considerable response to her appeal, and Arkansas will now proceed with its planned record execution of seven inmates in 11 days. The volunteers nearly all cited the need to see 'justice served for the victims' as their primary reasons.
However I cant help thinking that if executions were fully pubic events again, as they still were in some US states in the 1930's (with the last public legal hanging in 1936), there would still be very big crowds who would say that they were just there to see 'justice served for the victims' ... Or more likely, just because there has always been an attraction for many people, to seeing other people be executed.
The Roman Emperors knew this, which is why they built The Colosseum and provided public executions and gladiator battles. Roman satirist Juvenal described the limited desires of the Roman populace as being "panis et circansas" (Bread and Cicuses) ... it has ever been so.
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| Executions By US States Since 1976 (Top Ten) |
Did you know that many death sentence states in the USA require people with no connection to the crime to attend each execution that is carried out?
Well they do. In something of a hangover from the days when hangings were carried out public, these independent attendees are considered public eyewitnesses, and go to executions standing in the place of the general public.
 |
| Numbers Of Executions Across The US Since 2006 ... The General Trend Was Downward |
Virginia for example, is one such state. The volunteers are picked up by the prison bus and taken to Greensville Correctional Facility in Jarratt, Virginia where executions take place. Murderers such as Douglas Buchanan, Jr, who was convicted of murdering his father, stepmother, and two stepbrothers and was executed by lethal injection and whose final words in 1998 were "Get the ride started. I'm ready to go.", are observed dying, and in some states could look at the observers as they died.
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| Douglas Buchanan Jr |
With the slowing down of the rates of executions, it was thought that the public taste for attending the executions was also ending. This view seemed to be confirmed when recently Wendy Kelley, the director of the Arkansas corrections department, was forced to appeal for execution viewing volunteers as they didn't have enough people who were willing to attend their planned executions.
The Arkansas state law requires at least six "respectable citizens" to attend every execution to "verify that the execution was conducted in the manner required by law." She needn't have worried .... there was considerable response to her appeal, and Arkansas will now proceed with its planned record execution of seven inmates in 11 days. The volunteers nearly all cited the need to see 'justice served for the victims' as their primary reasons.
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| Rainey Bethea was the last person publicly executed in the USA in 1936 ... It was botched. |
However I cant help thinking that if executions were fully pubic events again, as they still were in some US states in the 1930's (with the last public legal hanging in 1936), there would still be very big crowds who would say that they were just there to see 'justice served for the victims' ... Or more likely, just because there has always been an attraction for many people, to seeing other people be executed.
The Roman Emperors knew this, which is why they built The Colosseum and provided public executions and gladiator battles. Roman satirist Juvenal described the limited desires of the Roman populace as being "panis et circansas" (Bread and Cicuses) ... it has ever been so.
It was reported in the papers today that a crowd laughed and cheered when a man jumped from the roof of an Asda store in Bexleyheath Kent. I think that shows the appetite for watching this kind of event is just as strong in the UK as the USA.
ReplyDeleteFor anyone interested in that story go here ... thanks for the comment.
DeleteIt's not surprising if we continue to have a fascination for such things, even if it's just out of general curiosity : every other TV show is about crime and death.
ReplyDeleteI didn't mean that we are influenced by the TV, rather it reflects our interest with the subject.
DeleteFair point ... some people are morbidly interested with seeing other people get hurt or punished, while others do just want to see criminals get their just desserts. Its probably a thin line between them.
DeleteI'm in the second camp and I'm not happy if the criminal gets away with their crimes.
DeleteI watch crime drama for entertainment and there's enough injustice in the real world without fabricating it as well.
J.j Buchanan was my friend. He used to wear his brothers jacket to school because he thought a lot of his brother. Me and J.J talked everyday, I wonder sometimes if he would have had a family and my kids and his would have been friends. I miss him.
ReplyDelete