Bridget Phillipson criticises planned public execution of Fort Hood gunman
UK Cabinet minister Bridget Phillipson criticised as “rather disturbing” a US plan to broadcast the firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan. She said the decision was for the US Government, while reaffirming Britain’s longstanding opposition to capital punishment.
Hasan, a former Army major and psychiatrist, was sentenced to death for killing 13 people and wounding 32 at Fort Hood in 2009. US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the execution is planned for 3 December and would be made public, arguing that people should see the consequences of such crimes. If broadcast, it would be the first public execution in the US since 1937.
- Phillipson called the planned broadcast disturbing.
- Hasan was sentenced for the 2009 Fort Hood attack.
- The US says the firing squad is planned for 3 December.
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Nidal Hasan was an American Army psychiatrist who carried out a mass shooting at Fort Hood military base in Texas in 2009. He killed 13 people and wounded 32 in the attack, and was subsequently tried and sentenced to death.
The United States is one of the few developed nations that still carries out executions. Public executions, however, are extremely rare in modern America, with the last one taking place in 1937, making any planned broadcast of an execution a highly unusual occurrence.
The UK abolished capital punishment in the 1960s and has long opposed it internationally. This is why a senior British Cabinet minister has commented on the planned execution, reflecting broader international concern about capital punishment practices.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Public executions serve the interests of transparency and accountability in a democracy. Citizens have the right to witness the consequences of serious crimes and verify that justice is administered fairly, ensuring the state cannot conduct such grave actions in secret or conceal potential abuses. Broadcasting creates public verification that sentences are carried out, and the visibility of proportionate punishment for heinous crimes may serve a genuine deterrent function that hidden executions cannot achieve.
The case against
Civilised justice systems are defined partly by moving away from public execution as spectacle. Broadcasting such an event treats a human being—however serious their crimes—as entertainment, which degrades society itself and reflects a loss of restraint and dignity. Justice is properly served through the legal sentence itself; modern democracies can ensure accountability and transparency through other mechanisms without subjecting citizens to voyeurism around death, demonstrating that civilisation includes limits on what the state should display publicly.
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Originally published by Daily Mail as “Cabinet minister hits out at ‘disturbing’ US plan to live stream firing squad for terrorist who killed unarmed soldiers”.