UN: Livestreaming Fort Hood Execution Amounts to Torture

The Pentagon's reported plan to broadcast the execution of Fort Hood gunman Nidal Hasan is drawing criticism not just at home, but from the United Nations. "The livestreaming of an execution is tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture," the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a message to AFP, per the Guardian. The office has raised similar objections over public executions in Iran and Afghanistan, saying they "constitute a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

But Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has his defenders, too, including conservative Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles, who called a public execution "what this terrorist deserves" and promised to watch. GOP Sen. Thom Tillis, however, labeled the plan "beyond disgusting" and likened it to the practices of "oppressive dictatorships," notes the Hill. Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy also used the word "disgusting." Hasan, an Army psychiatrist at the time of his 2009 rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 dead, was sentenced to death in 2013. While two-thirds of Americans back the death penalty for murder, only 39% believe it deters crime, according to Pew. Defense officials say details of the broadcast will come later.