ABSTRACT
The death penalty, being the most severe of all criminal justice sanctions, is logically attractive to the media. Media coverage of capital punishment can reduce the popularity of the punishment. This chapter explores how the media cover capital punishment. It focuses on the death penalty in entertainment. Murder is viewed by citizens and governments alike as the most heinous of all crimes. Many studies examine how the media cover the crime of murder, as well as how society reacts to it through criminal punishment. One such study, which examined death sentences in two Ohio newspapers, found that coverage of capital punishment varied greatly between the papers. The media are most interested in providing coverage of executions of widely known criminals such as serial killers like Ted Bundy or mass murderers like Timothy McVeigh. The last public execution in the United States was in 1936 in Owensboro, Kentucky.
