Making Executions Public
An execution, in the United States, can be authorized for a convicted criminal in five forms, including lethal injection, which is used in 33 states for an execution. A few states authorize an execution by electrocution, gas chamber, hanging, or firing squad. Shemtob and Lat offer a strong case about public executions, including, when a convict is executed the people have a constitutional right and responsibility to ensure that the convict on death row is administered a procedure that is humane.
Shemtob’s and Lat’s essay adamantly argues for public executions for all the people to observe, not just news media and selected observers. Shemtob and Lat support this view because the people have a responsibility to know how all executions unfold.…