Thomas Lynch

Televising executions, such as that of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, will force people to confront the reality of the death penalty, Thomas Lynch argues in the following viewpoint. He contends that the public must bear witness when a government exercises its power to kill. Lynch asserts that showing executions on television will not turn those events into spectacles but will instead enable Americans to decide the real purpose of the death penalty. This viewpoint was written prior to the McVeigh’s execution. Although McVeigh’s request to have his death televised was denied, Attorney General John Ashcroft did allow the families of McVeigh’s victims to watch the execution on closed- circuit television. Lynch is a funeral director and author.

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