Witness for the Execution

We’ll stop to gawk at a highway accident, and we’re likely to cheer when the mayhem breaks out at a hockey game. But witnessing the execution of a death row inmate is something else again. Some states are having a hard time finding the necessary witnesses.

"He deserves to die, so let him fry."

So say the vast majority of Americans when asked about the appropriateness of the death penalty for Timothy McVeigh. After all, he remorselessly reduced a federal building to rubble, crushing 168 innocent adults and children. Whether he had partners or not is beside the point. He did it, and many of you have no problem with saying: "Hang him high."

But would you watch his death if it were a prime-time special? The notion of a televised execution does, in fact, pop up from time to time. Phil Donahue has proposed showing one, and more recently 60 Minutes host Mike Wallace suggested televising the McVeigh execution.

Talk about violence on the tube! A full-color, real-time, high-definition image of a murderer's being put to death would be a shockingly unforgettable moment. But don't go grabbing for your remote quite yet -- 60 Minutes producer Don Hewitt has already said, "No!"

Of course, the airwaves are full of reality-based...