Public executions are carried out, above all, by countries with authoritarian governments and by terrorist groups

The United Nations expressed its condemnation of the American government's decision to broadcast the execution of a former soldier sentenced to death.

The UN spokeswoman for the High Commissioner for Human Rights said live-streaming the execution would amount to a form of torture. The director of Amnesty International said she was shocked and that the American government's decision “turns something so inhumane into a public spectacle, a theater of barbarity”.

On Thursday (8), Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced the plan:

"The convicted person will face a firing squad, and we will make sure that people can watch, that it is public. People need to understand that there are serious consequences for this kind of thing."

Correspondent Raquel Krähenbühl asked President Donald Trump if he authorized the decision to broadcast the execution live — Photo: Jornal Nacional/ Reproduction

In 2009, former Army major and psychiatrist Nidal Hasan opened fire and killed 13 people at the Fort Hood military base in Texas. He also injured 32 people and was sentenced to death in 2013. Hegseth stated that the United States has not used a firing squad against a soldier since World War II:

If the plan goes ahead, on December 3, this will be the first public execution in the United States since 1936 and the first in the country's history to be broadcast live. Correspondent Raquel Krähenbühl asked President Donald Trump if he authorized the decision to broadcast the execution live. The president responded:

"Absolutely."

He told another reporter that he had not yet made a decision. Vice President J.D. Vance said he had doubts that the execution would actually be broadcast and warned that, if it happened, he would not watch it.

Public executions are carried out, above all, by countries with authoritarian governments and by terrorist groups — Photo: Jornal Nacional/ Reproduction

Firing is a rare method of execution in the United States. In 2026, the Trump administration once again included it among the permitted methods for the most serious federal crimes, alongside the electric chair and gas asphyxiation. The announcement that the execution will be broadcast live breaks with decades of established practices surrounding the death penalty.

Public executions are carried out, above all, by countries with authoritarian governments and by terrorist groups, such as the Islamic State. In 2025, 17 people were executed in public in Afghanistan and Iran, according to the NGO Amnesty International. In other years, there were also executions of this type in Somalia, Saudi Arabia and North Korea.

Sergeant Alonzo is one of the survivors of the attack on the Texas military base. He was shot seven times in the Texas massacre and regretted the decision to broadcast the execution:

"We shouldn't turn this into a spectacle. We shouldn't turn him into a martyr," he said.

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