'Satanic:' Hegseth's move to live-stream execution shocks even pro-death penalty advocates
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has sparked howls of criticism after announcing that the Pentagon will live-stream the execution of a former US Army major by firing squad - a stance so controversial that even death penalty advocates have protested against it.
Hegseth said on Thursday that Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who was convicted of killing 13 people in a 2009 shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, will face the death penalty on 3 December.
The last time the US military executed a service member was in 1961, when Army Private John Bennett was hanged for rape and attempted murder.
But executing Hasan by firing squad would mark a special milestone for the US military. This would be the first time since 1945 that a member of the US military faced this punishment. Eddie Slovik was executed by firing squad for desertion during World War II.
Hasan is a former US Army psychiatrist. He went on a shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas, in what was later characterised as retaliation against the atrocities committed by the US military during the "war on terror".
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“He’s going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be,” Hegseth told Real America’s Voice, adding that the execution would be broadcast.
“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand that there are serious consequences for these types of things,” he said.
There is no known instance in modern American history of an execution being broadcast on television.
Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr said on Friday that he would defer to the Pentagon on whether US networks could broadcast the execution.
"Ultimately, we're going to defer to Secretary Hegseth" and his decisions on how to move forward with this, he said.
Non-partisan human rights groups like Amnesty International have long opposed the death penalty as "a violation of the right to life”, deeming it “cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment”. The death penalty is not prohibited under international law, but the United Nations commissioner for human rights has long pushed for its abolition.
Critics of the death penalty slammed the Trump administration’s decision.
Democratic Congressman Adam Smith said in a statement on Thursday that a public execution “makes a mockery of our legal system.”
“We are a democratic country and should take the rule of law seriously, not turn it into a spectacle,” he said.
US Democratic Senator Chris Murphy called the decision to live-stream Hasan’s killing “disgusting” and “medieval”.
But perhaps more notable, Hegseth’s statement sparked a furious outcry from even self-declared death penalty advocates on social media.
"I’m pro executions, more strict laws against criminals, but I don’t want them broadcast cause I feel that’s a ritualistic satanic offering,” one person on X wrote.
Joe Kent, the former Trump administration director of counterterrorism, said that he supported the death penalty against Hasan, but that he should be killed “swiftly & silently”.
"Streaming his execution is not just a stain on our morality - it also gives the terrorists free propaganda that they will use to radicalize & recruit more terrorists like Hassan,” he wrote on X.
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