I haven't seen any video and I hope that I won't either.

I have seen one of these videos since me and my roomate from last year shared a computer and he looked at it. I must say I was quite sickened by it, although I think that terrorrist's shall not attain their aims this way. Acts like this create much more anger at the terrorrists than at the governments. Just look at Bigley's example. At the end his family said that the british government had done everything it could. There are simple things which a government can't submit to. I don't want to go into a "how much a life is worth" debate, but sometimes a hostage has to be sacrificed by his own government since the terrorrists ask for too much. It is somewhat the same as when a soldier has to be abandoned in war as rescuing him would cause more losses.

If they televised state executions, who would watch? Please, anyone respond.

Quite alot, I would guess.

I wouldn't.

There's this quote from A Time to Kill when McConnehey (spelling?) says he's not opposed to the death penalty, and thinks the only problem with it is that we no longer do it on the courthouse lawn.

I think that it would deter other crimes if they did.
As much as I would love to say that I would not watch... I honestly think that I would, out of pure morbid curiosity.

[ 10-15-2004, 07:59 AM: Message edited by: shadowhound ]

I don't think it did in the Europe of past centuries.

Executions in the Western world is not messy enough to act as a deterrant, and even if they were, people would get used to it sooner or later and you would continuously increase the level of cruelty to keep the deterrent effect.

Besides, public executions have probably more to do with a decentralized government flexing it's muscles than anything else.

I don't think it did in the Europe of past centuries. </font>[/QUOTE]I'm curious as to whether or not it did. At one time, you couldn't enter London without passing hanging corpses. It was a warning put up on every road into the city. As to how effective it was, I'd be hard-pressed to say.

But, I did read last year about a jewel thief who turned himself in in Belgium. Seems that now that he's hidden the fruits of the heist, he's happy to do the maximum time for the crime (5 years) and retire on the loot when he gets out. Now, there's a flaw in the system for sure.

I also remember the movie In the Name of the Father. I don't know if it is accurately representative of prisons in the UK, but it looks a little too easy for my taste. (You may recall the scene where the guy ate Nigeria from the puzzle.) I'd like to see them suffer more. Otherwise, it's not quite the deterrent.