capital punishment
Military execution in USA to be shown via live stream
Updated 10/09/2026 – 8:43 p.mReading time: 4 minutes
For the first time in 65 years, the USA wants to carry out a military execution in public, as the Pentagon chief says. It would be the first public execution in the country in almost a century.
The planned shooting of an assassin sentenced to death at a military base in the US state at the beginning of December Texas should be broadcast via live stream. This was confirmed by the US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Platform X. The Pentagon chief had already said hours earlier that President Donald Trump The approved execution of a former US Army psychiatrist by firing squad was to take place in public.
It will be ensured that people can publicly observe the execution of Nidal Hasan, who committed a massacre at a military base in 2009, Hegseth told the right-wing conservative US broadcaster Real America’s Voice. “People need to understand that such acts have serious consequences.”
If the execution actually takes place, it would be the first military execution in the country, according to the Death Penalty Information Center USA for 65 years – and the first execution by a US military firing squad since then Second World War.
Hegseth emphasized that soldiers with rifles should carry out the execution. “We haven’t done this since World War II. Well, I kind of like the mentality we had in World War II,” he said.
The execution is scheduled for December 3rd at the Fort Hood military base in Texas. The military psychiatrist at the time, Hasan, killed 13 people and injured 32 there.
Executions in the USA are currently in particular focus
Trump only recently approved Hasan’s execution – a few days after an execution attempt failed in the US state of Tennessee. According to authorities, Christa Pike, who was convicted of murder, was given two doses of the drug pentobarbital, but she continued to live. The case has reignited the debate about the death penalty in the United States.
In line with Afghanistan and Iran?
Public shootings were used as a deterrent in the USA, including during the American Civil War in the 19th century. The last public execution in the United States was in 1936, when a man was hanged in the state of Kentucky in front of thousands of onlookers.
If the United States actually carries out a public execution again, it would bring it closer to states whose practices it likes to denounce elsewhere. Last year, according to the human rights organization Amnesty International at least 17 public executions took place: six in Afghanistan and eleven in Iran.
Such a process – especially broadcast via livestream – raises many questions, such as whether there will be access restrictions to prevent children, for example, from watching the execution.
Democrat shocked: “What is he imitating?”, IS?
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy appeared in an interview with the US broadcaster CNN visibly shocked when he heard Hegseth’s announcement: “This is disgusting. What is he imitating? Executions by (the Islamic State terrorist militia) IS?” He understands that there is the death penalty in the USA – “but public executions are medieval.” He criticized this as one of the processes that the USA abhors in terrorist groups.
