Hegseth’s call for public execution a sign of moral decay
The decision to live-stream the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan if carried out would place the US in the same company as Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea.
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The lawyers for Nidal Malik Hasan are expected to argue that public execution would amount to constitutionally banned “cruel and unusual punishment”.
PHOTO: AFP
Edward Luce
A raucous crowd of 20,000 gathered in Owensboro, Kentucky, in 1936 to watch the hanging of Rainey Bethea, a 22-year-old convicted rapist. Revulsion at the media frenzy and carnival-style atmosphere led to a US ban on public executions that has stuck for 90 years.
Last week, Pete Hegseth, America’s self-named “Secretary of War”, broke that taboo when he said the Pentagon would live-stream the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, a military psychiatrist who shot and killed 13 of his fellow soldiers.