Christianity teaches us not to turn executions into entertainment

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(RNS) — Public executions have not taken place in the United States for nearly a century. But last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the execution by firing squad of convicted mass murderer Nidal Hasan will be livestreamed . President Donald Trump has since said he will ultimately decide whether the execution will be livestreamed.

Calls for the public execution of a convicted murderer might be expressed in terms of justice and deterrence of crime, but history and human nature demonstrate that society is not better — nor is justice better served — for turning a state-sanctioned killing into a sideshow.

The past — and Christianity — have much to teach us on this question.

The last  reported public execution in the United States was a hanging in Missouri in 1937, attended by hundreds of locals. The year before, a more infamous public execution took place in Kentucky, when 20,000 people attended the public hanging of a 22-year-old Black man who confessed to raping a 70-year-old white woman but was never formally charged.

Michael L. Radelet, professor emeritus at the…