US Compared to 'Oppressive Dictatorship' Countries Amid Trump-Hegseth Plan to Livestream Hasan Execution

A Republican senator has said public executions are what 'oppressive dictatorships' do, after the Pentagon said it plans to livestream the firing squad execution of former Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who carried out the Fort Hood shooting.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the execution, scheduled for 3 December, would be 'public' so that people understood there were 'serious consequences'. President Donald Trump approved Hasan's death sentence on 2 October on Hegseth's recommendation.

Critics from both parties compared the broadcast plan to practices in Iran and Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

'Beyond Disgusting'

Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a Republican, said Hasan deserved to die but condemned the plan to stream the execution. 'Hasan should face the death penalty, but making his execution public and streaming it? Beyond disgusting,' he wrote on X on Friday, 9 October.

'Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do. It should not be happening in America.'

His post had been viewed more than 340,000 times as of Friday.

Amy McGrath, a former Marine Corps fighter pilot and Kentucky Democrat, made a similar point. 'Countries with a history of public executions or state-media coverage: Iran, China, North Korea, and Taliban-controlled Afghanistan,' she wrote.

'Know who doesn't televise executions? Western democracies. But apparently, under Trump and Hegseth, America will.'

'We'll Make Sure That People Are Able To Watch It'

Hegseth announced the plan in an interview with Jack Posobiec on Real America's Voice. 'We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public,' he said. 'Because people need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things,' Al Jazeera reported. He described the decision as a 'no-brainer'.

Asked whether Hasan had made any final requests, Hegseth replied: 'Don't care. We'll see him on December 3rd.' A Pentagon official later confirmed that the execution would be livestreamed and said more details would follow, PBS NewsHour reported.

Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, a court-martial death sentence cannot be carried out until the president approves it. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said Hegseth recommended the firing squad and Trump approved it, with the order signed on 2 October. Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle then set the date and location, Military Times reported. The White House referred questions about the livestream to the Pentagon.

The execution is scheduled to take place at Fort Hood in Texas at 1pm local time, the same hour as the 2009 shooting.

The 2009 Fort Hood Shooting

Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist who held the rank of major, opened fire on 5 November 2009 in a processing centre where soldiers were receiving immunisations and medical clearance before deploying. He killed 13 people and wounded 32 others.

A military jury convicted him of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder and sentenced him to death in August 2013. Representing himself at trial, Hasan told jurors he was the gunman and described himself as a soldier who had 'switched sides'.

A military judge barred him from presenting his stated motive, to stop soldiers deploying to Afghanistan and killing fellow Muslims, as a defence. He has been held on military death row at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.

An Unprecedented Broadcast

The plan would break with nearly a century of American practice. No US execution has been televised live in the modern era, and the last widely recognised public execution in the country took place in Owensboro, Kentucky, in 1936, when Rainey Bethea was hanged.

Army regulations require at least two media outlets to be selected as witnesses to a military execution. It remains unclear whether troops or members of the public will attend in person, and the Pentagon has not explained the legal basis or procedure for the broadcast.

In April, the Justice Department expanded its federal execution protocol to include firing squads, electrocution and gas asphyxiation, although Hasan's execution is governed by military law and Army regulations. The US military has not carried out an execution since 1961, when Army Private John Bennett was hanged, and has not used a firing squad since the Second World War.

Hasan could still delay the execution by filing a habeas corpus petition in a civilian court. 'It frankly might outlast the current administration,' said Eugene Fidell, a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School.

Echoes of Iran

The comparison to Iran carries particular weight while the United States is engaged in a conflict with the country, which began with US and Israeli strikes in February. Trump has repeatedly criticised Tehran's use of public executions. In his State of the Union address in February, he claimed credit for stopping Iran 'from hanging a lot of them with the threat of serious violence'.

McGrath's list grouped together countries with differing practices. Rights groups have documented public executions in Iran and Taliban-ruled Afghanistan since 2021, while North Korea and China have faced criticism over public or state-publicised executions.

Hegseth made his remarks while visiting the USS Abraham Lincoln, whose crew had supported the Iran war, according to PBS NewsHour.

Unless the courts intervene, the Pentagon plans to carry out the first US military execution in 65 years on camera on 3 December.