After awaiting justice - even military justice - for 17 years, Nidal Malik Hasan will be executed Dec. 3 by firing squad. This, itself, is unremarkable (aside from the concept that “justice delayed is justice denied”), except for the fact the execution will be live streamed.
Now, we had some exchanges about the death penalty - off topic in another thread recently (I apologize for my causing that). I said I generally oppose the death penalty because I do not believe the state should have the power to take lives; that’s because I can’t think of any state power which has not expanded and been abused. This would inevitably apply to the death penalty.
Having said that, if there is to be a death penalty, the only possibility that it may be a general deterrent demands two conditions be met: first, that it be prompt, not 17 years after the crime; second, that it be public - so those who are predisposed to commit capital offenses in the future, have a personal experience of observing the utter powerlessness of a condemned prisoner being executed. Knowing there’s a death penalty in the abstract will deter few, if any (especially if there’s no temporal connection between the crime and the punishment).
If the state is going to dispose of a human being, it ought to represent a meaningful lesson for society - beyond the specific deterrent of ensuring that the individual in question can never commit another capital crime.
A final thought: streaming this horrible event over the internet, does obviate the even more horrible, wild celebratory mob behavior which once characterized public executions, at least in Great Britain and Western Europe in the past. There have been many, many re-enactments of these grotesque events in movies going back some time. The earliest I remember is The Hunchback of Notre Dame. All of them painfully demonstrate how easily we human beings may devolve into inhuman savagery. This should be cautionary. Perhaps it may lack that character when streamed and watched by individuals and small groups. Hopefully, it will be conducted in a solemn and cautionary manner.
By way of a hopeful comparison, I mention in closing how inspired I have been as I watch launches of SpaceX’s Starship. Partly because of John Walker’s posts on Scanalyst, I understand the absolutely enormous cooperative human effort which has gone into creating and perfecting such a grand undertaking. It reveals the human capacity for nobility and real progress.