UN says Pentagon plan to livestream Fort Hood shooter’s execution could amount to torture, calling public executions “abhorrent”
The United Nations condemned the Pentagon’s plan to livestream the December 3 firing-squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, saying broadcasting an execution live would effectively turn it into a public execution and could violate the absolute international prohibition on torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment. U.N. officials called the prospect of executing someone before live cameras “abhorrent” and urged the United States not to proceed with the broadcast.
The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said “the livestreaming of an execution is tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture.” The office noted that it has raised similar objections to public executions carried out in countries including Iran and Afghanistan.
Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, was sentenced to death for killing 13 people and wounding 32 others at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. President Donald Trump approved his execution by firing squad, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has defended making it public, saying people should be able to watch because they need to understand that such crimes carry “serious consequences.”
The Pentagon’s decision has also drawn bipartisan criticism in Congress. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said public executions are associated with oppressive governments and “should not be happening in America,” while Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy called the plan “medieval.” Critics have also warned that broadcasting Hasan’s death could turn him into a martyr and provide propaganda for extremist groups.
Hasan’s execution would be the first carried out by the U.S. military since 1961 and the first military execution by firing squad since 1945. Public executions largely disappeared from the United States during the 20th century, with the country’s last widely recognized public execution taking place in Kentucky in 1936.
