The historical case you based this thought experiment off had to be almost completely rewritten for this to even be vaguely realistic. The actual (historical) execution took place in January, i.e. nearly a year before the election, not the day before; during the primary campaign, not the general election campaign, and it clearly served said individual's presidential ambitions, not the greater good of the nation, which is of course why it is often very aptly described as a deeply psychopathic act not uncommon for the politician we’re talking about here.
What's the historical example?
I asked Alcibiades this in another setting and he was thinking of Bill Clinton presiding over the execution of Ricky Ray Rector during the 1992 Presidential campaign, although Clinton was of course a governor at the time rather than the incumbent president. I agree with all of IndyRep's objections to directly analogizing it to this thought experiment, but Alcibiades just said "based on" without saying how closely so I still think it's reasonable.
