Public Executions

There was this idea that if a criminal is punished in public it strengthens the chance for them to actually reform and also it strengthens the public belief in the fact that justice will be served. 
However, people are flawed and many of those who amass enough power to actualy enact justice upon others are not really that honorable themselves. There is a significant chance that innocent will be punished over the guilty or that the punishments themselves will be too hard and incite even more anger and resentment towards the ruling class.
Public executions have recently became a spectacle, that favours a twisted form of entertainment over enacting justice. There has been a recent surge of interest into different kinds of torterous methods or especially cruel forms of keeping the sentenced alive for as long as possible to maximally prolong their suffering. The fascination with death and the macabre seems to be ever growing among the noble and the common populace and many scholars and priests and wisepeople have noticed a considerable shift towards more cruel practices.
The term public execution encompasses any corporal punishment that is enacted in front of crowds of people on purpose, usually announced a couple of weeks in advance to secure as big attendance from the populace as possible. But actual executions of criminals, especially those that encompass many stages like hanging, quartering, dissection and many other disturbing elements are the most popular. In certain areas people also place bets on when the criminal will actually pass on or how long they will actually be able to withstand their punishments.
A lot of people who have found themselves imprisoned for one reason or another nowadays start to prefer a trial by combat because combat at least has some rules that have to be followed and a tiny sliver of hope of actually being able to outfight your oponent. Which happens rarely, but at least the death by combat is usually swift and merciful one.