If they still did public executions, a nice multiple hanging or maybe the guillotine working overtime, I'd go and watch. Absolutely. And we'd take my children with me.
Well OK, I don't actually personally agree with the death penalty: people make mistakes, always, even with DNA — the wrong people can and have been executed, and you can't take it back and you can't say "oops, sorry mate" afterwards.
But, if we had public executions, the ratings would be fantastic. I'd be sat at the front with my pile of knitting, hoping to see it all. Or in Roman times, I'd of been in the Coliseum (way up in the top flights of course, being only a woman), having sex and watching the gore of the games blood splatter there way all day long, and perhaps make some money as a prostitute after the games, as all the jazzed up guys came flooding out.
Because, lets face it, people love gore, and there is no greater human drama than to see another human having their life ended violently. Of course, these days we have to sublimate our lust for blood into ersatz violence: the news reporting the deaths of people we never knew in ways that seem to make it immediate for us, sport, and of course, the biggie … films.
Action films, where "action" is a euphemism for "violent action" involve lots of people pretending to get killed. And horror films, where the competition to how to get away with as much gore as possible.
On any TV evening, the body count can be gratifying high. Of course, we've lost the reality of the drama — of real people suffering real terrible deaths. But on the plus side, we're gained the close-up, slo-mo, and the pause and rewind buttons. So their has been some progress.