The recent killing of Timothy McVeigh was part execution, part circus. I was chilled beyond words by pictures of the seating that allowed people to observe his demise - and by the joyful cheering of some of the crowd outside the prison. In these days of 'reality television' and Survivor we should, I suppose, be grateful that the killing of McVeigh was not transmitted live on television, or the subject of a macabre world-wide Webcast.
Still, there's always the next one.
Of course, no one can deny that the Oklahoma bombing was appalling and evil. McVeigh deserved to die for his crimes - whether he should have done is another matter entirely.
Before McVeigh's death, I remember an interview with a man who had lost his daughter in the bombing. He had already started to come to terms with his loss, and was campaigning against the death penalty as a memorial for his child. His words were full of peace and remembrance, not bitterness or anger.
However, the execution seems to have brought little satisfaction to the families of other victims. Many interviewees speak of a feeling of disappointment - they expected the execution to usher in a sense of closure, but it didn't. They are still locked in the past, and cannot move on.
None of us can predict in advance how we might react to such a tragedy. But many who looked to brutal human justice for a sense of peace seem to have been disappointed.