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Livestreaming US execution would amount to torture, says UN
A decision by US officials to livestream the execution of convicted killer Nidal Hasan would amount to torture, the UN said.
US defence officials said US Army psychiatrist Hasan, who shot and killed 13 people at a military base in 2009, would face a firing squad and the execution would be broadcast live, adding that details would come later.
“The livestreaming of an execution is tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture,” the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a message sent to AFP.
The UN body said it had made similar statements about public executions in Afghanistan and Iran, saying they “constitute a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.
Key events
While there has been bipartisan backlash to Pete Hegseth’s announcement that the Department of Defense plans to livestream Nidal Hasan’s execution in December – some hard-right Republicans have welcomed the news.
“Public execution is what this terrorist deserves,” said Andy Ogles, a GOP congressman from Tennessee. “We will be watching.”
While there’s limited research about support for public executions, according to a recent Pew survey, 66% of Americans favor the death penalty for those convicted of murder. Digging into the numbers, there is also a partisan split too – with 51% of Democrats supporting the death penalty compared to 84% of Republicans.
However, only 39% of Americans said that capital punishment actually deters people from committing crimes.
According to rights group Amnesty International, at least 17 public executions are known to have been carried out in 2025 – six in Afghanistan and 11 in Iran.
The Death Penalty Information Center says that 135 soldiers have been executed by the US military since 1916.
“Secretary Hegseth’s comments may be simply aspirational,” the center said in a statement.
“There is currently no regulation or precedent for an execution to be live streamed on the internet or otherwise made widely available to the public.”
Amnesty International Australia has urged the country’s prime minister Anthony Albanese to press the US to reverse its decision over the Pentagon’s livestreamed execution plan.
“The suggestion that an execution by firing squad should be livestreamed for public viewing is an appalling disregard for human dignity,” said Kyinzom Dhongdue, a campaign manager at the rights group.
“Turning a state-sanctioned killing into a public spectacle only compounds the cruelty of the death penalty.“
Livestreaming US execution would amount to torture, says UN
A decision by US officials to livestream the execution of convicted killer Nidal Hasan would amount to torture, the UN said.
US defence officials said US Army psychiatrist Hasan, who shot and killed 13 people at a military base in 2009, would face a firing squad and the execution would be broadcast live, adding that details would come later.
“The livestreaming of an execution is tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture,” the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a message sent to AFP.
The UN body said it had made similar statements about public executions in Afghanistan and Iran, saying they “constitute a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.
Pete Hegseth has said the execution of Nidal Hasan, the former army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, will be a public event when the sentence is carried out later this year.
A defence department official later confirmed the execution would be livestreamed.
In an interview with the rightwing channel Real America’s Voice, the defence secretary said the firing squad would carry out the sentence at Fort Hood, Texas on 3 December. It would be the first US military execution in more than 60 years.
Rachel Leingang
US voters are about to deliver their first national verdict on the second presidency of Donald Trump. On 3 November, millions of Americans will vote in midterm elections to decide control of the House of Representatives and Senate, as well as the governorships in 36 states. The results could have a huge impact on Trump’s final two years in office.
Today, the Guardian launches its 2026 midterm voter panel. Our reporters have interviewed nine voters across the country and the political spectrum about the issues that matter to them, from the cost of living, immigration and healthcare to the war in Iran and whether they trust their political leaders.
The answers – highlights of which are published below – offer insight into the national mood with less than a month to go until election day. The Guardian will return to its voter panel before the final votes are cast.
Pentagon’s ‘disgusting’ livestreamed execution plan provokes fierce backlash across political divide
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
The Pentagon’s plan to livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan, a former army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, has received fierce criticism from across the political spectrum.
In an interview with Real America’s Voice, defense secretary Pete Hegseth said the firing squad will carry out the sentence at Fort Hood, Texas, at 1pm on Thursday, 3 December. This would be the first US military execution in more than 60 years.
A defense department official later confirmed the execution will be livestreamed, prompting condemnation across the political divide.
Speaking on CNN, Democratic senator Chris Murphy said:
I mean, that’s disgusting. What, is he mimicking ISIS executions? I mean, I understand that in this country we have the death penalty, but public execution is medieval. It’s frankly one of the things that we abhor about terrorist groups, and the fact that the United States is doing it – I just learned this.
That is just absolutely extraordinary, galling. No matter whether you support or oppose the death penalty, public hangings and executions? That’s what America has become? Um, that’s, that’s pretty extraordinary.
Republican senator Thom Tillis said public executions were what “oppressive dictators” did. In a social media post, he said:
Hasan should face the death penalty, but making his execution public and streaming it? Beyond disgusting. Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do. It should not be happening in America.
Meanwhile, Democratic senator Patty Murray commented:
We can seek justice in this country without glorifying violence and turning an execution into a grotesque public spectacle. What this criminal did was abhorrent and must be punished – but we as a country cannot condone livestreaming a man’s death for entertainment.
We are long past the days of public hangings in the town square. Kids watch what our leaders do and say, is this kind of bloodshed really what we want them seeing? The Pentagon must revoke this decision immediately.
And the Democratic representative Betty McCollum said:
Secretary Hegseth’s desire to conduct a public execution is disturbing and should be stopped. The Army has not conducted an execution by firing squad since World War II and the U.S. has not had a public execution since 1936. Nidal Hasan has been found guilty of his crimes and should be held accountable for them but turning a federal execution into a media spectacle is appalling and unbecoming of the U.S. military.
The Pentagon’s announcement also drew backlash from human rights groups, while New Zealand’s national censor said on Friday it would be unable to block the planned livestreamed execution.
Speaking about the prospect of the execution being livestreamed, Hegseth had said:
It was a radical Islamist attack in uniform inside the ranks, and so he’s going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be, and we’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand there’s serious consequences for these types of things.
Hasan opened fire at a medical processing center on the Texas base on 5 November 2009, killing 13 people and wounding dozens more. A military jury sentenced him to death in 2013, and he has been held at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas ever since. He exhausted his appeals last year, which cleared the way for Donald Trump to approve the sentence this week on a recommendation from Hegseth.
In other developments:
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In a televised Maine Senate debate Democrat Troy Jackson said that, in addition to Brett Kavanaugh, Republican Susan Collins has voted to confirm dozens of anti-abortion judges.
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Republican Mike Rogers continually used Islamophobic attacks on Democrat Abdul El-Sayed in a Michigan Senate debate, accusing the Muslim candidate of being “bought off by Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaida”.
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Donald Trump claimed that the US will not strike Iran “at any time prior” to the midterm elections on 3 November.
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