What wonderful timing... This thread reminded me of a mitzvah from the Torah...
Lo and behold, this mitzvah is in this weekends Torah portion of Ki Teitzei.. The Torah is always 'current events'!
We are not to allow the body of a criminal to hang overnight... This is because of respect for the human image...
http://www.chabad.org/parshah/torahreading.asp?AID=36237&p=2&showrashi=trueDeuteronomy 21
22. If a man commits a sin for which he is sentenced to death, and he is put to death, you shall [then] hang him on a pole.
23. But you shall not leave his body on the pole overnight. Rather, you shall bury him on that [same] day, for a hanging [human corpse] is a blasphemy of G-d, and you shall not defile your land, which the Lord, your G-d, is giving you as an inheritance.
Rashis explanation of this mitzvah is:
For a hanging [human corpse] is a blasphemy of G-d: Heb. קִלְלַת אלֹהִים. This is a degradation of the [Divine] King in Whose image Man is created, and the Israelites are G-d’s children. This is comparable to two identical twin brothers. One [of them] became king, while the other was arrested for robbery and hanged. Whoever saw him [the second brother, suspended on the gallows], would say,“The king is hanging!” [Therefore, the king ordered, and they removed him (Reggio ed.).] - [Sanh. 46b] Wherever [the term] קְלָלָה appears in Scripture, it means treating lightly (הָקֵל) and degrading. For example,“[And behold, you have with you Shimei the son of Gera…] and he cursed me with a severe curse (וְהוּא קִלְלַנִי קְלָלָה נִמְרֶצֶת)” (I Kings 2:8). - [See II Sam. 16:5-13]