….. at a prison near you…
I guess there are some valid reasons to volunteer to join an audience to witness the execution of a prisoner on Death Row, such as:
- your state requires at least 6 or 8 people to watch in order to say the process was carried out according to protocol
- you see this as the duty of a patriotic citizen and support justice (or the law)
However, there are those amongst us who choose to attend as a form of entertainment, something like a rare recreation they can discuss over breakfast later that morning. The observation gallery is silent like a theatre, the curtains open and close but lights aren’t dimmed as the ‘public eyewitnesses’ focus on the activity behind the glass window.
The prisoner and audience watch each other until one is dead.
For some, it might be akin to jury duty, only the verdict has been reached already. For me, it’s a gruesome display of how human nature hasn’t progressed all that far. The fact that anyone can apply to witness a state murder disturbs me, because of the other motivations, such as:
- Schadenfreude
- a morbid fascination with the suffering of another
- power
- racism
