‘Medieval’ and ‘disturbing’: US plan to livestream execution elicits global condemnation
The Guardian · L · trust 50/100
Army soldiers after the memorial service for the 13 victims of the shooting rampage by Nidal Malik Hasan, on 10 November 2009 in Fort Hood, Texas. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Army soldiers after the memorial service for the 13 victims of the shooting rampage by Nidal Malik Hasan, on 10 November 2009 in Fort Hood, Texas. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images US justice system ‘Medieval’ and ‘disturbing’: US plan to livestream execution elicits global condemnation Pentagon said execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009, would be broadcast live
Prefer the Guardian on Google The US is facing worldwide condemnation over a “barbaric” plan to execute a disabled man by firing squad and livestream it to the public, with critics comparing the Trump administration to dictatorships in Iran and Afghanistan .
The Pentagon confirmed on Thursday that the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, convicted of killing 13 people at a military base at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009, would be livestreamed on 3 December.
The United Nations’ office of the high commissioner for human rights warned on Friday that broadcasting the killing would amount to a public execution and “breach the absolute prohibition of torture”.
Read more The plan also drew opprobrium from politicians, religious leaders and human rights advocates in the US and abroad. Hillary Clinton, the former US secretary of state, wrote on social media : “A barbaric idea, beneath our dignity as a country. Push back on this.”
Yassamin Ansari, the first Iranian American Democrat elected to the US Congress, posted : “In Trump’s America, we’re doing public executions now. WTF. This is what happens under brutal dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan. It’s all part of Trump’s authoritarian takeover of the United States.”
Britain, which abolished the death penalty in the 1960s, moved to distance itself from the execution. Bridget Phillipson, the UK’s equalities minister and Labour party chair, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that she found the concept “rather disturbing”.
Phillipson stressed that the decision was a matter for the US government, adding: “They are a close ally. Does that mean that we support everything the US government does? No.”
Under US military law, a president must approve an execution by firing squad. Trump did so on the recommendation of his defence secretary, Pete Hegseth , according to the Pentagon.
Hegseth gleefully confirmed the livestream plan after previously saying that the execution would be public. Speaking to the conservative broadcaster Real America’s Voice, he said people should be able to watch because they need to understand that there were “serious consequences” for such crimes.
Asked whether Hasan had made any final requests, Hegseth replied: “Don’t care. We’ll see him on December 3.”
0:45 Pete Hegseth says execution of Fort Hood mass killer will be livestreamed – video Now 56, Hasan was sentenced to death by a military jury in 2013 after being convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. Twelve of those killed and 30 of the wounded were soldiers.
The former army psychiatrist opened fire with a handgun at a medical facility at Fort Hood on 5 November 2009 as soldiers waited for medical checks before deployment. He was shot by a police officer during his arrest and left partly paralysed, and now uses a wheelchair.
The execution is expected to be the first by firing squad carried out by the US military since 1945, when army private Eddie Slovik was executed for desertion during the second world war. The last US military execution of any kind took place in 1961, when John Bennett was hanged.
Hasan’s case comes amid renewed scrutiny of capital punishment in the US following the botched lethal injection of Tennessee death-row prisoner Christa Pike last week. Her lawyers said she awoke in hospital “angry and confused” and remained seriously ill and shackled to her hospital bed.
Media have sought to televise US executions in the past, but have been blocked by the courts. No other country is known to televise or livestream legal executions, experts said.
Indeed, public executions have largely disappeared around the world. Amnesty International recorded at least 17 in 2025, including 11 in Iran and six in Taliban-run Afghanistan.
In the US, executions have been conducted privately for about nine decades. The hanging of Rainey Bethea in Kentucky in 1936, witnessed by thousands, is generally regarded as the country’s last public execution, although another hanging took place in Missouri the following year.
Experts said there was no known precedent for livestreaming a legal execution. The execution of the Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in 2001 was made available to victims’ relatives through closed-circuit television, but was not broadcast publicly.
The proposed live stream has prompted criticism from religious leaders. Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said it was a “barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered”.
Politicians from both sides of the aisle also spoke out. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives armed services committee, said the plan was “disturbing and makes a mockery of our legal system”. The Democratic senator Chris Murphy described public executions as “medieval”.
View image in fullscreen Nidal Hasan. Photograph: Bell County Sheriff's Department/AP The Republican senator Thom Tillis said Hasan should face the death penalty but that broadcasting his execution was “beyond disgusting”, arguing that public executions were associated with oppressive regimes.
Others warned that the spectacle would be counterproductive and act as a recruiting sergeant for US enemies seeking fresh propaganda.
Ned Price, a former deputy to the US representative to the United Nations, posted on X : “You can take it from…
Read the original at The Guardian →
Open in TruthVane →