The U.S. government
has said it is planning to
livestream a military execution later this year, in which a former army psychiatrist will be
killed by firing squad. U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, confirmed that this would be made public, saying
"we'll make sure that people are able to watch it."This is grotesque and backward. Actually, it's worse than backward: it's creating a brand-new precedent for a totally different type and level of cruelty.
No other country in the world has ever livestreamed a government execution. Only three other countries in the world - Iran, Afghanistan, and Yemen - have performed public executions in the past 5 years. In fact, only 16 other countries still allow the death penalty at all.
Sign the petition to demand that Pete Hegseth and the Trump administration abandon the sickening plan to livestream a man's death by firing squad.Republicans, Democrats, religious leaders, human rights organizations, and the UN are all speaking out against this proposed plan. Republican senator Thom Tillis called the idea of a livestreamed execution "beyond disgusting," while Democratic senator Chris Murphy called the plan "medieval" and wondered if Hegseth is intentionally "mimicking ISIS executions." Security experts feared this would
harm the US's security by possibly encouraging more future terrorism.
The military is planning its public execution of Nidal Malik Hasan for December 3. Hasan was an army psychiatrist who planned in advance to attack and kill dozens of people at a military medical facility at the Fort Hood army post in Texas in 2009. Ultimately, 13 people, including 12 soldiers, died. During his attack, a police officer's bullet left him paralyzed from the waist down and in a wheelchair.
There is no doubt that the U.S. must prevent further mass shootings and hold perpetrators of violence and terror accountable. But as we saw recently with Christa Pike's botched execution in Tennessee last week, state-inflicted death sentences are deeply disturbing and often go awry.
It's even more grim and horrifying to imagine that these horrible last moments could be livestreamed publicly, for everyone and anyone to watch these killings.Death is not entertainment - especially not violent killings. The idea of turning someone, even a gunman's, execution into a public spectacle should shock us all. We must speak out against this revolting plan while we still can. Sign the petition to demand that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth abandon his plan of publicly livestreaming this execution!