Barbarism at Its Best

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT has become boring. These days executions are as commonplace as space shuttle launches. As a result, extensive media coverage of executions has all but ceased, civil libertarians find themselves saddled with too many causes to fight effectively, and "law-and-order" fans have virtually no more tiresome judicial appeals about which to complain. The death penalty as an issue is virtually dead. Fortunately, some conscientious public officials have come up with a proposal that could rekindle the excitement: televising executions.

Watching a criminal being electrocuted might not seem like everyone's idea of a relaxing evening in front of the family room TV. Some among us might even call it barbaric. But we live in a barbaric society. An overwhelming majority of people in this country favor the death penalty, and it is about time they see the consequences first-hand: capital punishment as the newest spectator sport.

Statistics show capital punishment does not deter crime. What use, then, does it hope to fulfill? Criminals don't learn lessons from being killed. Killing a criminal doesn't bring back his victim. Perhaps its purpose is not to punish a criminal's guilt but to satisfy society's lust for revenge. The late Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas wrote in his autobiography, "Capital punishment is barbaric...its only value is the organism of delight it produces in the public."

Since capital punishment has been implemented by the public, it seems only reasonable that they should be privy to the process. Justice Douglas proposed a return to public stoning--not a bad idea, but if executions are televised the entire nation would have an opportunity to sale its blood-lust.

Of course, few proponents of this scheme actually use this argument to justify capital punishment. Law enforcement officials claim that the increased exposure television would bring to executions would increase the death penalty's deterrent value. This is a naive argument, to say the least. The extensive mass media coverage surrounding executions in the '70's had little effect on climbing murder rates; TV coverage of the event itself might even inspire a few potential murderers who want to go out in a blaze of glory.

SOME OPPONENTS of capital punishment favor television coverage. They believe that if the public sees a person's life being taken, many will be shocked and morally outraged, and the numbers who favor the death penalty will decline substantially. This, too, is a naive belief. More often than not, dinner-hour TV newscasts are filled with gory scenes featuring the all-too-realistic results of, say, the Iran-Iraq conflict. Moreover popular horror movies contain scenes more graphic than any execution. We are a society that cheers as "Dirty Harry" blows away criminals with a .44 Magnum. We have become acclimated to murder, whether by criminals or by the state. Why should we even flinch when we see a real televised homicide--especially when it's done in the name of justice?

If anything, lethal injections, firing squads, and electrocutions will soon prove too boring for American audiences. After the novelty wears off, Nielsen ratings will begin to drop, and the state's "producers" will have to come up with a more captivating formula. The process might degenerate into a variant of "Wide World of Sports"--gladitorial contests, or maybe criminals fighting off wild animals, running hundred-yard dashes through machine-gun fire, attempting broad jumps across impossibly wide flaming pits--a veritable Olympics! Can one popularize state executions?

This may be an unfair characterization of our society's lack of compassion. It may be that televising executions will cause people to realize that capital punishment is a barbaric institution. Maybe, as a result of the public exposure, the outcry will be so great that the process will be stopped altogether. P.T. Barnum once told us we'd never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the public. These days, you probably wouldn't go broke overestimating its acceptance of brutality.