12.10.2026 17:24
The US military announced that it will broadcast live the execution by firing squad of Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed 13 people at the Fort Hood military base in Texas in 2009, scheduled to be carried out on December 3. According to experts, if the plan is implemented, this will be the world's first known live broadcast of a legal execution. The decision drew harsh reactions in the US and around the world. Democratic US Senator Chris Murphy described the plan as "disgusting."
The last public execution in the US was carried out in 1936. With the Pentagon’s decision, 90 years later the execution of a death row inmate will be carried out publicly and streamed live on the internet.
TO BE EXECUTED BY FIRING SQUAD ON DECEMBER 3
The execution date of Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed 13 people and wounded 32 in the attack he carried out at the Fort Hood military base in Texas in November 2009, has been set. Acting Secretary of the Army Adam Telle decided that the execution would take place at Fort Hood on December 3 at 1:00 p.m. local time.
The execution will be carried out by firing squad. Because executions in the military require the president’s approval, US President Donald Trump approved the method.
HEGSETH: PUBLIC SO IT WILL BE A DETERRENT
The Pentagon spokesperson announced that the execution would be broadcast live. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, on a podcast program, said that the execution would be “public” so that people could watch and so that it would be a deterrent.
ACCORDING TO EXPERTS, THE FIRST KNOWN LIVE BROADCAST
According to expert opinions compiled by Reuters, if the plan is implemented, it will be the first time a legal execution has been broadcast live in the world. Saddam Hussein’s execution in 2006 was also not broadcast live. The footage released by the Iraqi government did not show the moment of hanging. The full execution emerged through footage secretly recorded by a witness with a cell phone and later leaked to the internet.
Public executions continue in Iran and Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, but they are not broadcast live. In Iran, footage of some executions is later broadcast on state media. In Egypt, in 2022 a court requested that the execution of the convict who killed university student Nayra Eşref be broadcast on television, but the necessary legislative change was not made. The convict was executed in June 2023 without a broadcast.
“DISGUSTING” REACTION
The decision drew harsh reaction in the US and around the world. US Democratic Senator Chris Murphy described the plan as “disgusting.” Amnesty International’s Australia branch also criticized Hegseth’s statements. New Zealand’s censorship board announced that it did not have the authority to prevent internet users from watching the broadcast.
CONCERN ABOUT CHILDREN WATCHING
Human rights organizations and lawyers warned that the broadcast could be watched by children. The military’s criminal code prohibits children from witnessing an execution. Lawyer Clive Stafford Smith said the broadcast could violate regulations prohibiting the dissemination of violent images, especially to children, and that he expected legal objections. Stafford Smith also argued that instead of being a deterrent, the execution could turn Hasan into a “martyr.”
Legal experts state that a public execution could violate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the US is a party and which prohibits cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishments.
THE MILITARY HAS NOT USED A FIRING SQUAD SINCE 1945
The last legal public execution in the US was carried out on August 14, 1936, in Owensboro, Kentucky. This execution, in which Rainey Bethea was hanged, was not broadcast. The US military last executed a soldier by hanging in 1961, and last used the firing squad method in 1945.