Could you watch an execution?

[Soubriquet]

Watching a film and there’s an execution and of course there’s people sitting behind the glass watching and it made me think, could I watch it?

I don’t think I could. Even if they murdered someone I loved very much, I’m not sure I could sit there and watch someone else die.

But then others say it can bring a sense of closure to them.

What about you?

As in the role of a legal witness I could. As a form of entertainment then no.
If they had murdered any of my close family I could.

Emphatically no. I had the opportunity to years ago while in Saudi Arabia and knew straight away that I could never watch something like that.

Yes, if it was Putin or Netanyahu, I'd go further and say I'd kill them myself if I had a gun

This isn’t bravado, but I think I’d be fine to watch any form of execution if it involved someone who’d harmed or murdered someone I love.

My worst case scenario is someone murdering my child. When I think about that, I know I could flick the switch, pull the trigger or kick the stool from under their legs myself. No qualms.

Same.

I’ve seen several people die, loved ones (and not so loved ones) at the end of their lives, nursed some through some very traumatic moments at the end of terminal illness. If you’ve seen someone die it’s a very strange thing because you realise their body becomes literally a shell: it’s like they’re just not there anymore. It’s made me weirdly desensitised to death. So I feel I could watch. I wouldn’t necessarily want to though unless I had some personal involvement in the case.

I agree. Imagine.being stuck in a cell for 50 or 60 years, knowing there is going to be no mercy, that you will serve time till you die. The prospect nearly drove Hindley and Brady mad. I'm not saying I would be upset if that pair had swung, but life in a cell is more hopeless for them.

Definitely nothing less than that pair deserved. They tortured Winnie Johnson to her dying day. That poor woman, taking her shovel up onto the moors to try and find her own son’s bones.

Hindley and Brady are committed to the deepest recesses of hell, I hope.

But to be fair there wasn't much else to do 😁

I agree about the 'shell" comment. I've also seen my fair share of death (ex nurse) and once someone has died what made them human has gone and they just look empty.

However, I wouldn't want to watch someone purposely be killed by another person.

When there’s been a shocking crime, posters on here getting all medieval about how the perpetrators should be treated (“dragged kicking and screaming” always seems to feature), I always think ‘you’re the sort of person who would have been part of the braying mob at a public execution’.

No.

I know some people who grew up in places with public executions where attendance was expected. They were very damaged by what they saw.

I absolutely would watch if it someone that harmed my children. I would more than watch, I’d want to press the button and make it as painful as possible.

In any other situation then not bothered

No,I don't think I could watch an execution. There, is always the chance that the wrong person has been found guilty

I read somewhere that the guillotine is the most humane way to execute a prisoner.

No, not without being traumatised. I saw the video (taken by a guard on their phone) of Sadam Hussain being taken to the gallows. It cut the moment before he was hung. Despite some of the terrible things he had done, I found it really disturbing and it still bothers me to think about it.

I’m staunchly anti-capital punishment…..I currently live in a death penalty state and DH works in law enforcement.
Personally, I’d rather know that the perpetrator of a hideous crime is serving a long sentence, preferably in general population. Prison isn’t a safe place 🤷🏻‍♀️ Particularly American prisons. And even more dangerous for those who’ve harmed women and children. I’m not saying by any stretch of the imagination that inmates are great examples of stand-up citizens…..but prison politics are clear: you don’t kill/rape women or children. And if that’s what you’re in for? You best be good at defending yourself because there’s a gigantic target on your head from the moment you pass through the gates.

However, I do absolutely understand why people do go to witness executions.
I can’t even begin to imagine trying to do the mental gymnastics of coming to terms with someone I love being murdered in an awful way - so if watching the execution of the perpetrator brings them closure? Then so be it.

For me it wouldn't be about 'seeing justice done' (because it wouldn't feel that way for me, even if I'd killed them myself) it would be about knowing 99.98% they were dead & could do no further harm.

I could if they'd hurt/killed a loved one. I couldn't understand any other circumstances. I think you have to have. When in a position of a loved one being seriously hurt.killed before you can know for sure what you'd do.

No , not under any circumstances. I’m also very anti capital punishment .

I think it’s legally required that there are a certain number of witnesses?

Not something I think I could do.

I have the means to protect myself and my family and I wouldn’t hesitate to use them in genuine need. Likewise if someone had seriously threatened or harmed me or mine, I’d happily watch them shuttle off this mortal coil. Would I be altered afterwards? Yes, of course, but it would be worth it to know my family were safe.
Before anyone asks, I’m a perfectly sane woman who has two generations coming after her. Anything that I could do to protect them would be done in an instant without any further thought and I think many people in that position would do the same.

Well I expect I could if I was forced to. I have seen a lot of unpleasant things in my time. But I would never choose to. I am fundamentally opposed to the death penalty and wouldn't want to have anything to do with it.

Absolutely not. As for “closure”, if someone had done something awful to someone I loved, it wouldn’t make a scrap of difference because my loved one would still be dead/hurt/whatever. I am absolutely opposed to the death penalty - even if someone had killed one of my children, how is killing them going to improve the situation? It would just be another family suffering. I’m not saying they shouldn’t be punished - lock them up and throw away the key - but just because a death is state-sanctioned doesn’t make it right.

You wouldn’t be satisfied being told they were gone?

My not wishing to watch it would be out of concern for myself, not the condemned person: I would worry that it would haunt me.

It’s not even remotely comparable

I think that people are more likely to "suffer", if that's what people want, by having to live for the rest of their lives in a cell than if they are executed, although if it's taking years for that to happen, they're suffering stuck in the cell and not knowing when you're going to be executed.

I find it interesting that there are people who are against the death penalty except if it's someone you love, especially a child. That means you support the death penalty because what would make your pain so unique that you should get to know/watch someone die because of what they did to your family, but not someone else who had the same thing happen?

You either support the death penalty or you don't. You would either watch someone die or you wouldn't.

I don't support it, so no, I wouldn't accept it for anyone and while probably in tims past when this was normal I might have watched it once, I think I'd turn out to be like a lot of people who were sickened by it and watch once then never again. Hangings, etc were popular with some and unpopular with a lot more.

I don't think that we should only not support the death penalty because we might get the wrong person but we get the wrong person a lot and there are people awaiting execution in the US who are innocent but it will be pure luck and if they get taken up by groups which help those who are wrongly convicted which will decide their fate.

And there is no humane way of executing someone, although the guilotine is definitely the quickest and cleanest and would be my choice for me if I was being executed.

No. No, no, no.

When I was at school, though I remember a friend telling me that when her dad went on business to Saudi Arabia, he would be shoved to the front of public executions sometimes. Awful…