Hailey Nguyen/The Cougar
The Pentagon announced that Nidal Hisan — who killed 13 U.S. soldiers and injured 32 at the Fort Hood military base in 2009, will be executed by a military firing squad on Dec. 3, 2026.
Controversial public executions
As of Oct. 15, President Donald Trump has said that Hisan’s execution will no longer be livestreamed to the public, as was the original plan. Hisan’s execution would have been the first public one in the States since 1936 and the first ever to be officially livestreamed. This announcement has reignited the debate over death penalty, though support for it has been diminishing over time.
Though capital punishment is legal in several U.S. states, the only method remaining in many is lethal injection, often considered a more “humane” method compared to the violence of military execution, electrocution or hanging.
However, the failed execution of Christa Pike has raised more questions about the true place of capital punishment in today’s society, after she survived the lethal drug injection and was subsequently hospitalized.
Regardless of the public’s stances on the death penalty, Pike’s execution has grave implications for the risks of psychological and physical trauma as a result of capital punishment — suggesting that it becomes a form of inhumane torture should it fail — disciplining the convicted in a way not agreed upon in a court of law.
Although these methods of capital punishment offer their own concerns, publicizing them becomes an entirely different issue. The only two nations known to have conducted public executions in the past year are Iran and Afghanistan, both under restrictive authoritarian rule.
Americans deserve better
The fact that live streaming Hisan’s execution was even a consideration presents major risks to American democracy. If the U.S. were to become like these other nations in this respect, it follows that it could very easily become like them in other respects and violate human rights.
According to Associated Press News, Trump said live streaming Hisan’s execution would have served as a deterrent toward terrorism, implying that his administration is not opposed to doing something similar in the future.
Public executions send a very clear message that the government holds the authority to punish people as they see fit, to degrade and murder them with the entire nation watching.
Hisan’s actions are in no way justified; they are absolutely immoral and worthy of punishment. However, do they warrant a continuation of a viciously violent cycle, his death by firing squad in front of the entire country?
Though this administration has only been in place for two years, America was nearly transported back 90 years with the stroke of a pen.
Public execution in the U.S. may never be considered again, but if it is, it could be the start of authoritarian rule dominated by fear and the manipulation of the American people.
Americans deserve a better nation, one where the innocent are not killed on the streets and the guilty are not killed on live television. The government should bring the United States forward to meet the future, rather than drag us into the past.
opinon@thadailycougar.com
