Viewers at home could have a flutter with spread-betting companies on how long it will take her to stop twitching – I’m imagining dynamic odds, flickering across the bottom of the live feed. And think of the merch: "I was supposed to be executed by lethal injection and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.” We live, as we're often told, in an attention economy – one in which abstractions like the impersonal administration of justice, legal principle and human dignity are a poor second to the visceral thrill of spectacle, ragebait, and the latest viral atrocity; one where the logic of terrorism and the logic of political communication and the logic of pornography are becoming near indistinguishable. Public executions for macho thrills are just the next step along the road, and public executions for profit are the step after that. It's, y'know, a no-brainer. ✍️ Sam Leith Article | | @questingvole