Believing/Doubting Game Exercise

Believing: Privatizing executions can be beneficial in a variety of ways. First, it would be one less decision the federal government has to make and dwell over. Government is indeed inefficient at times; And, privatizing executions would put the people in charge, thus more personal freedom. Private executions in public settings, like Shea Stadium, would evoke greater witnesses to the execution ceremonies--which would help discourage further murderers. People would then understand the potential embarrasment and humiliation one would encounter if committed a murder. Placing these criminals on the spotlight would, in short, abate the number of overall murderers in this country and help diminish America's leading role in the world of executing human beings.

Doubting: Privatizing executions would not solve the most indispensable problem today with capital punishment. The controversial and argumentative injustice of executing minorities disproportionaly and/or the imperfectness in our legal system leading to the executions of innocent individuals, most would agree, is the greater issue at hand. Arthur Miller's argument does nothing to address these problems. Also, public executions, in places like Shea Stadium, is quite inhumane. This is not the 17th century where we blatantly execute people publicly, leaving grotesque corpses lying for five year old children to see. And what about the issue of sanity? Most murderers today suffer from mental instability--they will pride themselves and feel satisfaction from incuring an execution in a public setting.