Execution of Fort Hood attacker will be livestreamed: Is this the end of American morals?

The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth confirmed that the firing squad execution of former US Army major Nidal Hasan will be livestreamed. On December 3, the execution is set to take place at Fort Hood in Texas.

News Source: https://www.bbc.com/

According to US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the public will be able to watch the firing squad execution of a former US Army major. Nidal Malik Hasan, a former US army Major and Psychiatrist opened fire at Soldier Readiness Processing center at Fort Hood military base in Texas that killed 12 soldiers and one civilian and wounded 32 people. The incident took place on 5 November 2009. The assault happened in a busy medical facility where deploying soldiers were waiting for vaccinations and checkups. He will be the first one from US military to get executed by firing squad since World War II.

Legal experts, civil rights organizations, and worldwide critics have strongly condemned the decision to publicly broadcast Nidal Hasan's firing squad execution. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth justified the move as a necessary show of "serious consequences," but others are expressing concern that the administration is going too far in terms of morality, ethics, and human rights.

The US defense Secretary said, “We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public. People need to understand that there are serious consequences for these types of things.” While the family of all the victims killed in the attack express relief that justice is finally served after a long 17 year wait. Human rights groups and supporters of the anti-death penalty have vehemently denounced the video, characterizing it as a "snuff film" attitude and an entry into barbarism. The U.S. government's adoption of public execution methods that have historically been employed and denounced in dictatorships like North Korea or Iran is criticized for being hypocritical.

Firing squads are becoming recognized as a less cruel option when many states have struggled to administer fatal injections because they cannot obtain medications or find doctors who are prepared to carry out executions. Vice President of the National Institute of Military Justice and a professor at Villanova Law, Brenner Fissell said “Firing squads can be a quicker, cleaner, more precise way to execute a prisoner,” he added. “I don’t think that’s what’s motivating this. There’s a perceived masculinity and military-ness to firing squads that is part of the aura Hegseth is trying to emphasize…the lethality culture.”

According to Hasan, it was an attempt to prevent them from killing his fellow Muslims in Afghanistan. During his 2013 trial, a military judge prohibited him from using that as a defense. After being shot in the back by police, Hasan became paralyzed from the waist down and is now confined to a wheelchair. Given his actions throughout the trial, Hasan may not want to request a protracted postponement of his execution. Hasan told jurors he was the shooter at the start of his section of the trial after firing his attorneys and represented himself. Over the next three weeks, he didn't say much more, leading his court-appointed standby attorneys to believe that Hasan's sole objective was to receive the death penalty.

FAQs:

Q: When and where will the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan take place?

A: On December 3, the execution is set to take place at Fort Hood in Texas.

Q: What is the method of execution of Nidal Malik Hasan?

A: Hasan will be executed by a firing squad made up of U.S. Army soldiers armed with rifles

Q: How rare is fire squad type of execution?

A: It is totally unheard of in modern history. This will be the first death by firing squad in the U.S. military since World War II (1945) and the first execution of any type in almost 65 years (since 1961).

Q: How can the public watch the execution of Fort Hood attacker?

A: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that the Pentagon will ensure the broadcast is fully "public" so people can watch it. Pentagon officials subsequently clarified that it will be broadcast via an internet livestream, though exact platform links and structural details have yet to be released

Q: Has an American execution ever been livestreamed before?

A: No. According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), there is no legal precedent, rule, or record of an execution being broadcast live to the public in the United States. In the past, requests from the media to broadcast the death penalty have been vigorously denied by federal courts. The closest similarity occurred in 2001 when the execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was only shown to the families of the deceased on a private, closed-circuit loop.