We Are Better Than a Televised Execution

I was dismayed by the news that the military execution of a convicted terrorist would be livestreamed.

Nidal Hasan, an active-duty Army major, murdered 13 people and injured 30 at Fort Hood in 2009. A horrific crime that he admitted was done as an act of Islamic resistance.

The law does not ban the United States from televising an execution. Media outlets have long sued the government for access. That does not make it necessary – or wise. An execution is the gravest act of a country. Turning it into a broadcast spectacle changes its character. It invites millions (maybe billions?) to become spectators at the taking of a human life. While some will watch in anger, some will watch in curiosity. Neither impulse makes us better human beings.

I understand the Pentagon’s desire to use Hasan’s execution as a deterrent. Our brave military personnel expect to face death on the battlefield; that risk is part of the job. They don’t expect it in a classroom, from one of their own.

This is not an argument about forgetting those 13 deaths or minimizing the evil.

For me, this is not an argument about forgetting those 13 deaths or minimizing the evil that was done that day. Justice matters. We all get that. We can agree that government has a responsibility to punish wrongdoing and protect life. But that justice does not require a camera to stream it.

When an execution becomes spectacle

C.S. Lewis wrote, “Mercy, detached from Justice, grows unmerciful.” It’s also true that justice stripped of mercy and dignity can harden into cruelty. Christians need look no further than the Roman cross to understand that.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” (Matthew 5:7). I know that mercy does not necessarily erase consequences. But it does govern the spirit in which consequences are carried out. It keeps required punishment from becoming revenge. It keeps solemn duty, the most serious duty a government has, from becoming entertainment.

It will add another brutal image to a world saturated in brutal images.

Our civilized western society can carry out a sentence without making death “available on demand.” Livestreaming it will not bring back those we lost, heal broken families, or teach our children reverence for life. But it will add another brutal image to a world saturated in brutal images.

For me, some things should remain unseen because dignity still matters. My faith has taught me that. If death becomes only a spectacle, as it was in ancient Rome, the condemned will not be diminished alone. Those watching are diminished as well.

–Dwight Widaman is editor and owner of Metrovoicenews.com.

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