UN condemns Pentagon plan to livestream Fort Hood gunman’s execution

The United Nations says the Pentagon’s plan to livestream the firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan would amount to torture, adding to a backlash over a punishment that some supporters of the death penalty say should not become a public spectacle.

Hasan, a former Army major and psychiatrist, was convicted after opening fire at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, killing 13 people and wounding 32. His execution is scheduled for Dec. 3 at the base. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the public will be able to watch, and the Pentagon said President Donald Trump approved the use of an Army firing squad.

“The livestreaming of an execution is tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture,” the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a message to AFP, according to The Guardian. The office said it had made similar objections to public executions in Afghanistan and Iran.

Hegseth defended public access to the execution, saying “people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.” But Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who supports Hasan’s death sentence, called streaming it “beyond disgusting.” Public executions, he wrote, “should not be happening in America.”

Republican Rep. Austin Scott also backed the sentence but objected to the broadcast, writing that “live-streaming executions is what jihadists do.” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy called a public execution “medieval.” Republican Rep. Andy Ogles took the opposite position, saying, “Public execution is what this terrorist deserves. We will be watching,” according to The Guardian.

Alonzo Lunsford, a former Army sergeant who was shot seven times during the attack, told the BBC he supports executing Hasan by firing squad. He questioned showing the entire event uncensored to the public, however, saying it is “not something you should view for entertainment purposes.” Lunsford said survivors and victims’ families should be able to witness it, and that he intends to attend in person.

Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, urged the Pentagon to reconsider, calling the plan “a barbaric promotion of a culture of death.” Former State Department spokesman Ned Price warned that broadcasting the execution could create a martyr and encourage radicalization.

The Death Penalty Information Center told The Guardian it knew of no regulation or precedent for livestreaming a military execution. Hasan’s would be the first U.S. military execution since 1961 and the first by military firing squad since 1945, according to the center. The last public execution in the United States was in 1936.

Whether the livestream can go ahead remains uncertain. Legal experts told the BBC it could face a successful court challenge. Clive Stafford Smith, a lawyer who has represented death-row prisoners, told Al Jazeera that allowing children to view it would raise legal questions: Minors are typically barred from witnessing executions, and the Army’s rules prohibit them from doing so.