By O. Henry Swartzentruber
Ninety years ago, Rainey Bethea stood on an elevated hangman's scaffold in the other Daviess County (Owensboro, Kentucky), one of the last public executions in the United States. Following that August 1936 hanging, governments ended the practice for a while. The reason was obvious: it turned into a public, barbaric, sensationalized, bloodthirsty carnival. I tried to find a public picture from the Daviess County library for this article, and they made it difficult for me to find one. Then I thought, of course, I don't want to further inflame the event and broadcast to you what I want to depress. It is in part the same reason I have not watched the Charlie Kirk shooting. It's sick and depraved act of a sick and depraved individual. Garbage in, garbage out, as my dad used to say. And after viewing, I can't unwatch it.
And last week, I mentioned the Ottoman Turks taking and viciously executing famed captain Mark Anthony Bragadin defender of Christian Cyprus, after the captain surrendered. This inhumane killing galvanized the Holy League to push back against the Turkish advance into Europe. Yet here we are.
Nonetheless, in December, the federal government announced it will resume public executions. Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth offered a plan to publicly livestream the December 3rd execution of Fort Hood shooter (of fellow soldiers) Nidal Hasan. Hegseth claimed the public needs to see "serious consequences for these types of things," as if the public was not clear that you cannot shoot and kill 13 fellow US soldiers. This shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the two primary mechanisms of American criminal justice: deterrence and retributive type justice (e.g. fair punishment).
A basis for our Western criminal justice system includes leveling fair punishment, upholding the law while giving dignity (often undeserved) to the accused, and offering a fair process that commands respect. This is a reason as to why our society invests in formal, ornate courthouses (like ours in Daviess), elevated judicial benches, flowing robes, publicly funded lawyers for the accused, and many appeals. These items are not mere aesthetics and trappings. Many courts do not permit video or media in the Courtroom for a reason. But when the state lowers itself from that pedestal, it compromises the authority it seeks to project. The Pentagon’s plan to turn an execution into a public broadcast is a mistake. Does anyone think little jihadis will watch the US government live stream and think twice about attacking the West? The decision undermines the logic both of deterrence and retribution. Deterrence assumes a rational actor who fears such penalty (Hasan and his ilk welcome and ask for publicity), and retribution assumes a criminal pay a serious, solemn, fair price for his action. A public broadcast cheapens and lowers the price. Why reward Mr. Hasan, irrational jihadi, with the attention he clearly wants?
Further, the United States is among dangerous company; countries and governments previously criticized on these same pages. Amnesty International reported that of 17 countries that used capital punishment in 2025, only two nations carry out executions publicly: the barbaric Iran and the Taliban-run Afghanistan. Add to that China, with the most executions of any country, humanely shields its killings from the public. That shining city on a hill. Wow, my friends. Maybe we should get advice from North Korea on how they're handling such thorny issues.
This article is not a debate on capital punishment, which easily can be had. An argument could be made that capital punishment's purpose is to hold up the value of human life. Many Western institutions, including the Catholic Church, have taken a position opposing capital punishment for several decades because it views it as an attack on the overriding dignity of the human being, that it lowers the person. And so what again is the argument, Secretary, that we must restart public executions after a 90 year pause?
The United States has avoided public executions since 1936 because 90 years ago it felt the act desensitized the public and devalued the law and criminal justice process. Mr. Hasan deserves the death penalty. Thank God I have not always gotten what I deserve. However, justice is best served unseen by a public asked to observe, and best denying publicity to a terrorist who wants the whole world to watch. Sick ... let's behave better than the accused.