military execution – The Pentagon’s plan to livestream Nidal Malik Hasan’s execution challenges a 65-year tradition of private justice, echoing a bygone era of public spectacle.
For nearly nine decades. the final moments of the condemned in the United States have been handled behind closed doors. draped in a veil of administrative secrecy. That silence may soon be broken. The Pentagon’s recent announcement—a proposal to livestream the first military execution in more than 65 years—threatens to revive a practice long confined to the history books.
Should the plan proceed. Nidal Malik Hasan. the man convicted of killing 13 people and wounding scores more during the 2009 Fort Hood shooting. would face a firing squad in December while the world watches online. It would mark the first public execution since the 1930s. when hangings in Kentucky and Missouri drew throngs of onlookers. transforming the end of a human life into a grim communal event.
History offers a stark template for what such spectacles look like. Michael L. Radelet. a professor emeritus at the University of Colorado Boulder. describes an era when parents and teachers brought children to witness hangings as a moral lesson. These gatherings often featured choirs, preachers delivering “execution sermons,” and the condemned—typically men—offering lengthy final speeches. In Leadville. Colorado. in the late 1800s. a man named Cyrus Minich addressed the crowd directly: “Therefore I apologize and I’m ready to go. Goodbye, goodbye.” The crowd’s response was immediate and chilling: “Goodbye Cy, goodbye Cy.”.
By the mid-1930s, the atmosphere had soured. Rainey Bethea. a Black man who confessed to the rape and murder of a 70-year-old white woman. was hanged in Owensboro. Kentucky. in 1936. Thousands attended, forcing officials to move the event to a parking lot to protect the courthouse lawn. A year later. in Missouri. the hanging of Roscoe “Red” Jackson drew crowds so eager for a view that some climbed trees or carved peepholes to witness the morning event. The public nature of these events—often marked by carnival-like behavior and applause—eventually repulsed the nation. prompting states to move toward private. controlled executions to maintain a veneer of solemnity.
Now, the proposal to broadcast Hasan’s death exposes deep divisions over the role of the state in capital punishment. Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, notes that no execution has ever been livestreamed. While the 2001 execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh allowed victims to view the event via closed-circuit television. Maher describes Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s current plan as “simply aspirational. ” noting there is no existing regulation or precedent for such a public broadcast.
Legal hurdles remain significant. Hasan could file a habeas corpus petition in civilian court. a move that would likely trigger a lengthy review of his detention and delay any scheduled execution. Elisabeth Semel. co-director of the Death Penalty Clinic at UC Berkeley Law. suggests the timing of this announcement reflects a desire for spectacle rather than policy. questioning whether the current administration has considered the resulting social and legal ramifications. Conversely, some see the potential for radical clarity. Fordham University law professor Deborah Denno argues that livestreaming could bring necessary transparency to a system currently plagued by questions following a botched execution in Tennessee.
For now, the machinery of the military justice system is set against a shifting cultural landscape. What began in the 1930s as a fading tradition of public spectacle is being reconsidered in a digital age, leaving the legal and moral consequences of such transparency firmly in the balance.
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