Live Broadcast of an Execution

Cruel and very unusual: The U.S. administration revealed yesterday its plan to broadcast live the Army’s forthcoming firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter who killed 13 people during a 2009 rampage, according to Pentagon officials. The execution is slated for December 3. Hasan, formerly an Army psychiatrist, would become the first person executed by firing squad by the U.S. military since 1945.

“We’ll ensure that the public can watch it,” said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. “Let it be public. Because people need to understand that there are serious consequences for these kinds of acts.” It will be the first execution that the U.S. government livestreams over the internet.

I oppose this, and I think other libertarians should share that view. By granting the state vast power to impose the death penalty, we are not only ceding authority; in cases like these—extremely public executions—we enable the state to turn a solemn occasion into a brazen public spectacle.

The administration of justice should not be perverted into sport or entertainment. Death-penalty-as-deterrent types might welcome this, but I worry what it says about us as a society if large numbers of us tune in to watch. Does this actually convince people with violent tendencies to turn away from violence because the consequences are so severe? Or does it deaden us, allowing us to grow more accustomed to seeing people’s final moments on camera?

“A public execution is giving a terrorist exactly what he wants: publicity,” writes Reason‘s Robby Soave on X. “They fantasize about being martyred like this, in front of a crowd (and a live TV audience???). It’s ISIS recruitment slop.”

We’ve long been repulsed by the idea of televised executions: “Three-quarters of Americans believe that convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh should be put to death,” noted Pew Research Center back in 2001. “But only about a quarter of the public (24%) favors televising McVeigh’s execution, while 73% say it should not be broadcast. More than twice as many white men as white women (32% vs. 15%) believe that McVeigh’s death should be broadcast. Younger Americans are also more likely to support broadcasting the execution; three-in-ten of those under age 50 say McVeigh’s death should be broadcast, compared to 14% of those over 50.”

My hope is that we’re still horrified by them, not desensitized through the proliferation of violent cop bodycam footage, Twitch-streamed mass killings, and ICE shootings.

There is, of course, also the argument that broadcasting an execution by the government could turn more people against the death penalty. Between this and the recent botched execution of Christa Pike, I am hopeful public sentiment will sour, and we will no longer approve of the state putting people to death.

“The day after”: “Top executives at Anthropic, OpenAI, and other AI companies are privately gaming out scenarios for a public and political revolt after a catastrophic AI event,” reports Axios.“These officials anticipate a large-scale event, most likely a cyberattack, that shuts down access to financial services, internet connectivity, or even power and water.…Many AI industry insiders told Axios they believe a major event will occur in the next six to 12 months.” I discussed this type of scenario on Monday’s Reason Roundtable.

Scenes from New York: “A federal immigration agent shot and wounded a man in a largely residential section of New York City on Thursday, eliciting swift rebukes from Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who accused the Trump administration of ‘terrorizing our city,'” reports The New York Times. “The shooting happened about 4 p.m. in the Marble Hill neighborhood, as agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, tried to arrest the man while he was in a car with a 5-year-old boy believed to be his son in the back seat, Jessica S. Tisch, the police commissioner, said at a news conference late Thursday night.”

QUICK HITS

• “Remember when tariffs were supposed to be the killer issue for Republicans, the path to the hearts of the working class and a durable majority?” asks the Wall Street Journal editorial board. “That isn’t working, as Michigan GOP Senate candidate Mike Rogers calls for a cease-fire in President Trump’s senseless trade war with Canada. Michigan once looked to be a GOP pickup opportunity, and it still could be. But most polls show far-left Democrat Abdul El-Sayed with a growing lead, in no small part because of Mr. Trump’s trade escalation against Canada.”
• “Number of teens who identify themselves as gay or bisexual is in ‘free fall'” according to The Washington Post, when compared with how teens identified circa 2020 and 2021.
• “With senior voters a major force in American politics, lawmakers may well be tempted to try to legislate our way toward family reconciliation,” writes Karol Markowicz for New York Post. “They should reject that impulse. But in state after state, they’re giving it a try: Last year, legislators in Florida, Massachusetts, Missouri and Minnesota introduced bills that would force parents to give an estranged grandparent access to their children. None of these bills has yet become law.”
• Very cool:

What a gift this is to the world. All of @stewartbrand’s work: writing, festival capers, and a library of 50,000(!) photos dating back to the 1950s: https://t.co/Qz3PFLZLvC

(Where else could you find Marshall McLuhan, Brian Eno, and Marlon Brando in one place!?) https://t.co/fsGrAL7L0W pic.twitter.com/EPrnKKGrIj

— Tamara Winter (@tamarawinter) October 9, 2026