The United States is now preparing to bring back the spectacle of execution, and broadcast it to the world.
Yesterday (10/8/26), the Pentagon announced plans to livestream the execution by firing squad of Nidal Malik Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people and wounded 32 at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009.
Hasan had been sentenced to death in 2013. President Trump approved the sentence last week. The Army has scheduled his execution for December 3.
This would be the first U.S. military execution since 1961.
In 1936, an estimated 20,000 people gathered to watch a Black man, Rainey Bethea, be hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky. Public executions largely disappeared from American life by the following year.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says Hasan’s execution should be public so people understand there are “serious consequences” for crimes like his. When asked about his last wishes, Hegseth said: “Don’t care. We’ll see him on December 3rd.”
Earlier this year, Trump condemned Iran’s execution of protesters as he made the case for military action against Iran.
Public executions remain a tool of autocracies such as Iran and North Korea, where leaders use them to demonstrate state power and intimidate the population.
The United States is now preparing to bring that spectacle back, and broadcast it to the world.
Sources
- Associated Press: Pentagon plans to livestream Hasan execution
- U.S. Army: Army sets execution date for Nidal Hasan
- RealClearPolitics: Hegseth interview on public execution
- Army Lawyer: From Soldier to Condemned Prisoner
- Associated Press: History of public executions in the United States
- Associated Press: Trump, Iran and threatened executions of protesters
- Human Rights Watch: Iran’s execution campaign against protesters
- Amnesty International: Public executions in North Korea
