The US Department of Defense plans to carry out a public execution in early December. The execution of a death row inmate will be broadcast live. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has already said that the execution of a former US Army psychiatrist approved by President Donald Trump will take place in public. It is scheduled for December 3 at the Fort Hood military base in Texas. In 2009, Nidal Hassan opened fire on soldiers there, killing 13 people. Another 32 people were injured. The attacker then said he was avenging US wars in the Muslim world. The former military psychiatrist was sentenced to death by a military court in 2013.
If the execution does take place, it would be the first military execution in the United States in more than 60 years, according to US media. The decision to broadcast it live is “unprecedented in modern history“ and “is in unclear legal territory”, said John Mills, a lawyer who works with death row inmates.
The debate over the death penalty in the US has flared up again
Trump approved the execution very recently - just days after a failed attempt to carry out the death penalty in the state of Tennessee. Convicted murderer Krista Pike was injected with two doses of the drug pentobarbital, but she survived. The case has reignited the debate over the death penalty in the United States.
Public executions by firing squad were used in the United States during the American Civil War in the 19th century as a means of deterrence. The last execution carried out by a firing squad of the US Army took place in 1945. The last public execution in the United States was in 1936 - then in the state of Kentucky a man was hanged in front of thousands of people.
Criticism of the decision
If the United States does indeed carry out public executions again, it would put it in the same group of countries whose practices it has condemned in other cases. According to data from the human rights organization “Amnesty International“ At least 17 public executions have been carried out in the past year: six in Afghanistan and eleven in Iran.
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy told CNN that the live broadcast was "disgusting" and reminiscent of executions carried out by the Islamic State group. Alonso Lunsford, a former US Army sergeant who was shot seven times during the Fort Hood attack, told the British public broadcaster BBC that he supports execution by firing squad as the "appropriate" method for what was done. He doesn't think everyone should have the opportunity to watch the execution live, as he worries about the message it sends to younger people, but says it's important that those affected by the shooting be given that opportunity.
Source: www.dw.com