hanging saddam

[arguchik]

cnn has a little video on its website today, in which a female reporter interviews people on the street to see if: a) they watched the video, apparently shot with a cell phone, of saddam hussein's death by hanging; and b) if so, if they felt guilty about it. several people said they wouldn't watch it because people shouldn't be watching it; the moment of death is private and should be treated with respect. several others said, "hell yeah i watched, and the bastard got what he deserved." i could envision them cheering while the blue flickering light of the computer screen washed across their faces. a few said, "yes, i watched. i didn't expect to feel guilty or uneasy about it, but i really did." one woman said watching it has made her re-think her pro-death penalty stance.

i don't know how i feel about it. i will say that i haven't watched the video. i was not surprised to see it circulating, but i haven't looked at it and i don't intend to. i watched the "official" video of the moments leading up to the execution, in which the hangmen put a noose around saddam hussein's neck--that upset me enough, and i am already queasy about the death penalty, without watching a hanging. i think watching the "unofficial" video probably would make me feel guilty, or at least a species of guilt. part of me thinks videos like this should not ever be available--it basically reinstates public executions. another part of me thinks...well, if seeing video like that can make people re-think a pro-death penalty stance, then maybe it's worth it. people should see the uncomfortable, unpleasant, but factual truth about things that are basically being done in their names. but then i see the cheerleaders, and how the public spectacle of a death like saddam's feeds bloodlust and warmongering.

my gut feeling is that the video shouldn't be shown--and that it shouldn't have been filmed to begin with. but maybe that's just because i don't want to see it. as with most things, public ethics is a complex, sticky business, and response is so varied that it can't really serve as a basis for an ethic anyway. so what are we left with?

i'm feeling rather down today. still working for the union, doing nothing but research this week, and it's got me feeling very isolated, socially. the new quarter started yesterday, and i'm not on campus.

i really miss teaching.

P.S. (added later) in other news, the only (known) remaining copy of steve irwin's death from a stingray barb has been handed over to his widow, thereby "ensuring the gruesome footage will never make it onto YouTube." (citing this article.) the coincidence of these stories is fascinating.

P.P.S. i just got an email notifying me that sandra gilbert (of madwoman in the attic fame, along with susan gubar) is coming to seattle to talk about her new book, death's door: modern dying and the ways we grieve.)

Comments

[alice-at-night.livejournal.com]

Have you thought about how much it's the MEANS (hanging) that is distrurbing you/others? That watching someone be killed in a less vicious manner would be easier to stomach? Like, dunno, sleeping pill overdose or leathal injection or something gentler (if you can term a death mechanism "gentle").

This conversation before has led to a nice circular argument that State killing should be physically vile. Because gentle killings are easier to accept. And an easier to accept killing is morally vile . . but I'm not up to playing the D.A. just now.

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

that's an interesting question. sure, my squeamishness about watching the saddam hanging video is somewhat related to the method used (i don't particularly want to see someone's neck broken--i wouldn't want to watch that happen in a horseriding accident, or a diving accident, either), but it's not limited to that. see the bit in my post about how i think it's actually necessary for people to see uncomfortable things that are being done in their names--i include watching animals slaughtered for consumption, here, along with battlefront pictures and executions. but the complexity of the question emerges when i think about how watching stuff like that can actually feed bloodlust and warmongering. adding further to that complexity is the propensity for witnesses to yell taunts and jeers at the person being executed. taking everything into account, public executions amount to cruel and unusual punishment for the executee, in my opinion.

on the other hand, if there are going to be executions at all, people should see it, should witness the act of their representatives in the state killing another human being. and really, is any method of execution less violent than any other? they all amount to the same thing, so the question of what method to use comes down to the question of which matters more: the experience of the person being executed, or the experience of those witnessing the execution. fyi, the last public execution in the u.s. was in 1936. i believe it was outlawed as "cruel and unusual," but that probably had more to do with the squeamishness of people watching than with any concern about the condemned person's experience.

from what i've read, autopsies of execution victims suggests that the guillotine is the most "humane" form of execution in terms of the condemned's experience. it's quick and pretty much foolproof. hanging is close. not so foolproof (it can and does go horribly wrong), but when done "correctly" so that the neck snaps at around the C1-C3 vertebrae, it's very quick (death is still usually by asphyxiation, though). interestingly, the states of washington and new hampshire still use gallows for some executions (it's up to the condemned person to choose)--in washington, most recently in the mid-1990's, i believe. the most recent hanging execution in the u.s. was in delaware in 1996, though delaware also stopped using the gallows that year.

the so-called "modern" (sanitized) mode of execution by lethal injection is easier to watch, certainly, because the victim is given both a sedative and a paralytic. but chemical death is not as quick, and probably not as painless, and the jury is out on how well the sedative works. don't even get me started on the gas chamber or the electric chair--just check out what happened to ethel rosenberg when she was electrocuted. there are more recent examples of botched electrocutions, too.