President Donald Trump announced that the United States Department of Defence’s plan to publicly livestream the execution of mass murderer Nidal Hasan has been cancelled, after furious backlash from both US major parties and the international community, marking a previous U-turn from Trump’s outspoken support for the livestream, having described it as a “strong deterrent for… terrorists and scum”.
Former US Army Major Hasan carried out the 2009 Fort Hood shootings, where he killed 13 unarmed personnel and injured 32 others within and around the Soldier Readiness Processing Centre within Fort Hood, Texas. During the shooting, Hasan was shot and paralysed by responding law enforcement and was subsequently tried, convicted, and sentenced to death in 2013. He is currently held at the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, awaiting execution.
While death sentences are not an uncommon measure in the US, with approximately 2,000 prisoners currently awaiting execution as per the Death Penalty Information Centre, the profile of this issue has been especially raised this year, with the recent controversial failed execution of Christa Pike by lethal injection in Tennessee breaking into international news. Hasan’s execution stands out amongst the rest however, as US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth confirmed that President Trump had approved Hegseth’s plans for a livestreamed US Army firing squad execution – which would’ve been the first public execution ever broadcast on the internet by the United States – a move that had drawn comparisons to the widely condemned public executions held by Iran and Afghanistan in recent years.
Texas, the state in which Hasan will still be likely executed in, and the US Military use lethal injection as the primary method of execution. Only six out of 1,682 executions since 1976 nationwide were by firing squad, with none of these occurring either within Texas or under US Military jurisdiction, which makes Hasan’s case even more unusual.
The announcement drew fierce criticism from both Democrats and Republicans, with Democratic ex-presidential nominee Hilary Clinton describing it as “barbaric”, while Republican Senator Thom Tillis said that “livestreaming executions are what extremists do”. Even Vice-President JD Vance had said that he “would not be watching it”, originally raising doubts over whether the livestream would go ahead. The planned execution had also been criticised by international bodies and organisations. The Office for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has warned that livestreaming Hasan’s execution would breach the absolute prohibition of torture under the UN Convention Against Torture, a convention which the United States has signed and ratified. International human rights organisation Amnesty International had also described the execution as ‘reprehensible’ and would ‘perpetuate the cycle of violence’.
Despite President Trump confirming that the livestream will now not go ahead, Nidal Hasan is still set to be executed at Fort Hood on 3rd December by firing squad, with Trump reaffirming that the families would still be able to view the execution in person, stating that “they deserve to witness JUSTICE”.
