Phil Donahue, the late talk show host, predicted we would one day have live executions on TV.
In 1994, he petitioned the Supreme Court to videotape Lawson’s execution for television, arguing that the public needed to see capital punishment to decide if it was right or wrong.
The death row inmate, David Lawson, convicted of a 1980 murder, joined him in the petition, the SCOTUS turned them down..
Donahue wasn’t asking for the access to advocate for capital punishment. Rather, he wanted people to see how barbaric it was. He told Larry King on King’s show: “I am on record as being against capital punishment,. I am making this argument not as an ideologue, but as a person who believes that this free-press establishment has a responsibility to show this issue, which has split families.”
But Phil knew it would happen. He advocated for the live execution of Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh in 2001. And now Pete Hegseth, a grotesque character, is going to let it happen. He’s all for promoting violence. Nidal Hasan, who was convicted of killing 13 people in the 2009 shooting, is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on Dec. 3 at Fort Hood.
A firing squad, that’s right. The most atrocious thing that could be shown on TV or streaming. It will be interesting to see if YouTube or any other platform will have the good grace to stop it. Even Google should not allow a live execution, and block the White House website. Zoom should disallow it, too.
Hegseth, a dangerous clown who will be pilloried by historians, told a website: “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it. That it’s public. Because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.”
All of this will be of more impact since the failed execution of Christa Pike, in Tennessee, by lethal injection.
