Pentagon Livestream Plan Revives Debate Over Public Executions

The Pentagon's announcement that it plans to livestream the execution of former U.S. Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan has revived a debate over whether executions should be public events. The proposal, announced Thursday, October 8, 2026, would mark a departure from nearly nine decades of largely private executions in the United States and raises questions about legal authority, public access and the historical role of capital punishment.

Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding many others in the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. The proposed broadcast would accompany the first U.S. military execution in more than 65 years, according to the Associated Press.

Public executions were once major community gatherings, with thousands attending some events. Michael L. Radelet, professor emeritus at the University of Colorado Boulder, said historical executions often attracted crowds because they were treated as public spectacles as well as supposed deterrents to crime.

Radelet explained that, before television became widespread, executions could draw large audiences in cities and rural communities. Some events included choirs, preachers delivering execution sermons and speeches by condemned prisoners.

At an execution in Leadville, Colorado, in the late 1800s, condemned prisoner Cyrus Minich addressed the crowd before his death.

"Therefore I apologize and I’m ready to go. Goodbye, goodbye." Radelet recounted Minich's words.

According to Radelet, spectators responded to Minich's farewell.

"Goodbye Cy, goodbye Cy." The crowd reportedly called back.

Radelet said the atmosphere surrounding public executions sometimes resembled a public entertainment event rather than a solemn legal proceeding.

"This is in the days before TV, so not much going on often in big cities, certainly in rural areas, too, so they were there just for the spectacle," Radelet said.

The last public execution in the country is generally considered to have been the 1936 hanging of Rainey Bethea in Owensboro, Kentucky, Radelet said. Bethea, a Black man who reportedly confessed to raping and killing a 70-year-old white woman, was not charged with murder, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Thousands attended Bethea's execution, which took place in a parking lot to protect the courthouse lawn from the crowd, the center reported. The following year, Roscoe "Red" Jackson was hanged in Missouri, where spectators reportedly climbed trees and cut peepholes to watch the execution.

States began moving away from public hangings as concerns grew over botched executions and the behavior of spectators, Radelet said. He described how the public response to some events contributed to the decline of the practice.

"Instead of promoting the sanctity of life and how solemn the circumstance was, with people applauding and having a carnival-like atmosphere, that really turned people off," Radelet said.

Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said her organization has no record of an execution being livestreamed. The closest precedent came in 2001, when Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was executed at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that victims could attend McVeigh's execution in person or watch through closed-circuit television. The arrangement did not establish a precedent for broadcasting an execution over the internet to the general public.

Maher questioned whether the Pentagon's announcement represented an established policy or a future ambition.

"simply aspirational." Maher characterized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's comments in a statement.

She said there was no existing regulatory framework or precedent supporting a widely available online broadcast of an execution.

"There is currently no regulation or precedent for an execution to be livestreamed on the internet or otherwise made widely available to the public," Maher said.

Hasan could challenge the execution by filing a habeas petition in civilian court, a legal request seeking review of the lawfulness of detention. Experts said such a petition could significantly delay the proceedings.

Elisabeth Semel, co-director of the Death Penalty Clinic at UC Berkeley Law, said the proposal raises questions about the defendant's dignity, eligibility for viewing access and the legal and public policy implications of broadcasting an execution.

Semel also questioned the administration's motivation for presenting the execution as a public event.

"This is a president who’s about spectacle and that’s, I think, precisely the message that he intends to deliver," Semel said.

Deborah Denno, a death penalty expert and law professor at Fordham University, offered a different perspective, saying public access could allow people to see more clearly how capital punishment is carried out. Her comments came as a botched execution in Tennessee had renewed questions about execution procedures.

Denno said a broadcast could make the process more visible to the public.

"much more transparent" Denno said livestreaming could make the execution process.

She argued that greater visibility might help the public understand what happens during an execution.

"I think it could possibly be a good idea because it would be transparent and the public would be fully aware that it’s happening," Denno said.