Hegesth plan to publicly livestream Nidal Hasan execution draws bipartisan, UN condemnation

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's plan to livestream the December 3 firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan draws condemnation from the UN, Republican and Democratic lawmakers, and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Trump administration has not made a final decision on the broadcast.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's plan to livestream the December 3 firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan has drawn widespread condemnation from the UN, Republican and Democratic lawmakers, and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Trump administration has not made a final decision on the broadcast. Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, fatally shot 13 unarmed US soldiers and wounded 32 others at the Fort Hood military base in 2009. Hegseth told podcaster Jack Posobiec aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln that the execution would be public because "people need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things." The UN human rights office said livestreaming the execution would be "tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture." Republican lawmakers joined the criticism, with outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis saying public executions belong to "oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan," and Georgia GOP Rep. Austin Scott saying "live-streaming executions is what jihadists do." The last public US execution was Rainey Bethea's 1936 hanging. Hasan's execution would be the US Army's first execution of a soldier since World War II.