Public executions

Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader

Stashed away in a closet at Springfield police headquarters, as though someone had wanted to hide them from public view, were the noose, hood and an invitation to Greene County's last public execution in 1935.

That's not a bad metaphor for executions themselves. Once public spectacles, they too have been moved deep inside state prisons, hidden from view. Out of sight, out of mind. ...

The hood, noose and invitation were artfully arranged in a shadow frame. They're now on display at the police museum ... For many viewers, it will bring a shudder of revulsion.

That's healthy. And, just maybe, it is an argument for making executions public again. The argument over the death penalty is largely academic, fought with statistics that show how inequitably it is distributed or how the innocent can be trapped and killed. But statistics are faceless, which makes them easy to ignore.

What if executions were conducted on today's public square, the television set? What if you could look the condemned in the eye just before his death? What if you could see what is being done in your name? If the very idea makes you shudder, that is good -- and a strong argument for making executions themselves a historical artifact.