"One of the hardest tasks will be to determine who gets to be the hangman because so many people want revenge..."

Everybody wants to be Saddam's hangman. But, really, under the rule of law, the executioner -- if we are to have executions -- should be a neutral, disinterested government functionary, not someone who's into revenge. One must maintain a sharp distinction between executioner and murderer.

And what of public executions?

Officials have considered staging a public hanging in Baghdad’s largest sports arena, Shaab Stadium, and filling the place with tens of thousands of spectators...

That has been rejected, but only because of the security risk.

The linked article goes on to talk about the death penalty in Iraq, where at least 51 people have been hanged since August 2004. (The American authorities had suspended the death penalty in 2003.) Here's one anecdote:

On Sept. 6, the Iraqi authorities planned to hang 27 people. On the 13th hanging, according to an official who was there, the rope snapped and the convicted man plummeted 15 feet through the trap door onto the concrete floor. “God saved me!” the man cried. “God is great! I did not deserve this!” For an hour, he lay on the ground praying and shouting while prison guards and the executioner debated whether this constituted divine intervention and, if so, whether the man’s life should be spared. Once a new rope was rigged, however, the man was forced up the stairs once again and successfully hanged.