Imminent Death Is Relaxing

People who know that they will die imminently (i.e., sick, death row, trapped) with no options are generally not fearful. If the knowing does cause fear, it is a temporary fluctuation of mindset quickly resolved back to a calm demeanor. Knowledge, even of your own death, can produce calm; ignorance can breed fear—even if the knowledge in question should be frightening. Now that we understand this, society has lost a major presumed reason for the death penalty—to see fear while being put to death, and the public witnessing the act to experience it, too.