U.S. Plan to Livestream Execution Would Constitute Torture According to the United Nations

Author: Maya Mortenson

October 13, 2026

HRRC calls for the United States to halt the public execution of Nidal Malik Hasan. We further support the abolition of the death penalty worldwide.

Jeffrey and Sheryll Pearson look at the portrait of their son, Army Pfc. Michael Pearson, before the Purple Heart and Defense of Freedom award ceremony on Fort Hood, Texas, April 10, 2015. The event honored the 13 people killed and more than 30 injured in a gunman’s 2009 shooting rampage on the base. [Image credit: U.S. Army photo by Daniel Cernero/Wikimedia Commons]

Pete Hegseth, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, stated that Nidal Malik Hasan will be publicly executed by firing squad. The execution is planned to be livestreamed. Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 in a shooting at the Fort Hood military base in Texas in 2009. The execution is expected to take place on December 3rd at the Fort Hood military base. There has not been an execution by a U.S. military firing squad since 1945.

The United Nations (UN) human rights office said that livestreaming the execution would constitute a public execution and violate the absolute prohibition on torture. Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has stated that past public executions “constitute a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. Additionally, UN Secretary-General António Guterres published a report in which he commended progress towards abolition of the death penalty globally, but also highlighted that a small number of countries, primarily Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, have been increasing the number of executions they carry out. 

The U.S. has not had a public execution since 1937, when a public hanging was viewed by a few hundred in Missouri. Public support for the death penalty has been on the decline in the United States. Today, it is estimated that 52% of Americans support the death penalty, decreasing dramatically from 1994, when around 80% of Americans supported it. 

Globally, executions appear to be on the rise. In 2025, Amnesty International reported at least 2,707 executions took place in 2025 across 17 countries. This is a 78% increase from 2024, where 1,518 executions were recorded. 17 public executions were known to have occurred in 2025, with eleven taking place in Iran and 6 taking place in Afghanistan. The U.S. was the country that carried out the fifth highest number of executions out of all countries in 2025. 

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Glossary

• Abolition: The act of officially ending or stopping something.

• Constitute: Make up, form, compose.

• Convicted: The act or process of finding a person guilty of a crime especially in a court of law.

• Cruel: Causing or conducive to injury, grief, or pain.

• Death Penalty: Death as punishment for a crime.

• Degrading: Causing or associated with a low, destitute, or demoralized state.

• Inhuman: Lacking pity, kindness, or mercy.

• Execution: A putting to death especially as a legal penalty.

• Hanging: An execution by strangling or breaking the neck by a suspended noose.

• Firing Squad: A group whose job is to shoot a prisoner who has been sentenced to death.

• Livestream: A broadcast streamed over the Internet for live viewing.

• Prohibition: An order to restrain or stop.

• Public: Exposed to general view.

• Torture: The act of causing severe physical pain as a form of punishment or as a way to force someone to do or say something. 

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References

1. https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/10/116856

2. https://www.reuters.com/world/un-calls-us-plans-livestream-execution-abhorrent-2026-10-09/

3. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6kgq7rqdql7o 

4. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2026/05/death-penalty-in-2025-facts-and-figures/

5. https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc6047-question-death-penalty-report-secretary-general