Explainer: Why does America want to publicly execute someone?
The US government is considering the public, livestreamed execution of Nidal Hasan, a convicted mass shooter, by firing squad. The proposal has sparked debate regarding the ethics of public executions and the potential for political distraction.
Why it matters
Raises significant legal and ethical questions about the return of public capital punishment in the United States.
Explainer - America shocked the world last week by announcing plans to livestream the execution of a convicted mass shooter.
The plans to broadcast the death by firing squad of Nidal Hasan later this year mark a return to the spectacle of a public execution, which most countries abandoned decades ago.
America hasn't held an execution in public for nearly 100 years, while New Zealand last had one in 1858.
US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth announced last week that he planned to make the execution of Nidal Hasan public, including livestreaming it on the internet.
Hasan is a former US Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people and wounded 32 others at an army base in 2009.
"We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public. Because people need to understand that... there's serious consequences for these types of things," Hegseth said.
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