what is ironic about timothy mveigh’s execution is that most of the victims’ families were very unsatisfied that mcveigh showed no remorse during his execution, as if they were going to catch the be-all and end-all conclusion to a murder mystery where the killer was (surprise) someone they knew well. what were they expecting? mcveigh can never and will never be someone they can know well. and they expect him to break down into tears and say sorry for his extreme and, in this case, fatal convictions about his government? instead of saying final apologetic utterances, mcveigh looked every single person in the room right in the eye, and died with those same eyes open as if he had stayed strong until the end.

public execution made mcveigh a martyr to the extremist right-winged nationalists. his role in the gulf war made him feel cheated by his own country that essentially used him for wealth in kuwaiti oil. in no way do i agree with mcveigh’s actions in the oklahoma bombing and in no way am i saying that he did not completely deserve punishment by death for taking the lives of innocent people for his own political debate. however, this issue of public execution will never stand on its own.

this is not the first that we have seen of public executions. back in the middle ages, people were hanged at the gallows before a boo-ing crowd and during the french revolution king louis iix was beheaded at the guillotine in front of the masses. but did this help deter future crime? NO. it only desensitized potential criminals who saw death as commonplace; death did not scare them as much as before the public executions.

has our need for voyeurism led us to a grim area where the death of an individual brings us peace?

the death penalty has always been an issue of conflict for me. i know that if a close friend of mine or a family member were killed (god forbid), i would want to see that piggy fry. but in cases like these, where closed-circuit television allowed some people to view the execution of mcveigh on their boob-tubes, i can only speculate how many people were watching it for closure and how many people were watching it for satisfaction. those are two very different things.