How can you witness an execution

Frank Weiland, 77, works as a brass works fabricator in Lynchburg, Virginia. He's volunteered to witness four executions. He says he goes as a show of support for law enforcement. The last execution he witnessed was in , when Brandon Hedrick chose the electric chair over lethal injection.

He watched Hedrick get strapped into the chair, and saw the warden put a sponge on his head to help the electrical current travel faster. The noise is kind of a bump. As a matter of fact if I had the choice I would take the chair. Teresa Clark tells a story about the night following the first execution she attended. They get to say their goodbyes, so I really can't say I felt sorry for them.

Image source, Teresa Clark, Facebook. Image source, Beth Viele. For some witnesses, this process is very traumatic because it allows old wounds to be reopened. This time allows for the witnesses to come to grips with their feelings, express themselves in a safe, confidential environment, and refocus on the steps ahead.

This time is vital for the witnesses as they begin the next step of the healing process. Following the debriefing, the victim witnesses are offered the opportunity to speak with media representatives. If they elect to speak with media, Victim Services Division staff will accompany them to the media conference.

We in Victim Services consider it a privilege to share this time with the families. They have been through many years of stress, pain and grief. It is our goal to lift them up and to assure them that we do care.

Executions in the United States were once a public spectacle, and the tradition persisted well into the first half of the 20th century. Ryan, the final public execution performed in the United States was that of a man in Kentucky, who was publicly hanged in Thousands of people came from several states to gather around the gallows and watch the execution. In some states, admission was charged. Some states began enacting laws prohibiting judicial public executions in the latter half of the 19th century.

Today, executions are carried out behind prison walls with only a small group of witnesses in attendance. Every state that performs executions has legislation providing for certain people to witness them. State laws vary as to who is allowed to watch an execution, but in general, these are the people who are allowed to be witnesses:.

Witnesses may arrive anywhere from 20 minutes to two hours before the scheduled execution, at which point they are escorted by prison guards into the witness room. The death penalty poses difficult moral dilemmas: What is the appropriate punishment for crimes that violate every imaginable standard of decency?

Will the imposition of the penalty on one person deter other criminals from killing? Can it be justified as appropriate and fitting the crime? Television coverage of executions can help answer these questions because the camera can serve as a neutral witness: It can see exactly what any person would see from the witness room — no more or no less.

The camera can document the event from beginning to end, capturing it exactly as it happens. This is the purest form of reporting; the camera can present the event without interpretation. In contrast, print or radio reporters can only tell the story by putting it into their own words — an act which requires them to interpret what they have seen and opens the door to incomplete or inaccurate reporting. But is it right to show the execution of a condemned person on television?

I believe it is. When the story is about the ultimate sanction of our criminal justice system, we not only have the right to witness the punishment, but the obligation to do so and to understand it in the context of the crime for which it was imposed.