<sarcasm>Let's just stick their head into a neck chute and hit them with a bolt gun.</sarcasm>
sarcasm aside, I think it's a better option in that case. Do it to the BACK of the head and you still have a very little mess execution that can be open casket.
I dunno about humans, but putting down a horse is nothing like putting down a dog or cat. The drugs are expensive and often fail, and then pollute the environment. A bullet through the brain is actually more humane.
I understand the concern there, but I think we're closer, physically speaking, to dogs & cats than we are to horses. Especially dogs.
Is that a bug or a feature?
Cheap environmental evolution - CO2 levels too high will kill you quicker than not enough O2, so outside of some tunneling creatures we've evolved to detect CO2 with the side benefit that it NORMALLY also handles not enough oxygen. It takes artificial means to lower O2 levels without raising CO2, at least in situations that humans and our ancestors were likely enough to encounter that the means to detect O2 directly would be useful enough to evolve for.
I completely disagree.
That's your right, though I still believe that no doing in a torturous way is a way to be 'better than them'. Go ahead and advertise that you executed him for his crimes. On the other hand, allowing HIS family to keep some dignity by treating him with respect up to and through the execution ALSO helps, in a primitive tribal way, of preventing said family from seeking retribution for the horrible death their member suffered, even if he 'deserved' it through his crimes.
I also think that corporal punishment would probably have a beneficial place in our justice system, so long as it's specifically applied, but remember that I specified avoiding causing pain once you've reached the level of executing them. Before that it can be a teaching tool. After, well, he's going to be meat soon anyways.
Allowing the family(ies) of the executee or the victims to watch doesn't seem right or smart.
Agreed, I think it evolved out of the tradition of families being closer to 'clans', and therefore you'd have representatives from each clan to verify that it was done right, however 'right' was defined at the time. The victim's family so they could bring back word that justice was properly met. The condemned's family so they could retrieve the body after as well as providing 'support' in them 'dying well'.