The U.S. Army has regulations regarding executions. Those regulations specify who may be in attendance as witnesses. The regulations do permit “a minimum of 2 media representatives, selected under the direction of CPA, from a pool of media representatives requesting to witness the execution.” The regulations also declare, “no person under the age of 18 shall witness the execution.”
If, as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth intends, the execution of Nidal Hasan is live-streamed, it will be just about impossible for the Pentagon to ensure that “no person under the age of 18 shall witness the execution.”
Now, if the Pentagon wants to rescind that regulation, they can do so. But they can’t just ignore it.
“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand that this is a there’s serious consequences for these types of things,” Hegseth told Real America’s Voice network.
Is there anyone on earth who does not believe there are “serious consequences” for shouting “Allahu akbar” and then killing 14 people and injuring 32 others in a jihadist terrorist attack? If the execution is not live-streamed, does Hegseth believe that the public will conclude the consequences for committing a murderous terrorist attack are minor and inconsequential?
My podcast co-host Greg Corombos recalled that former television talk-show host Phil Donahue, a death penalty opponent, wanted state executions to be televised, because he believed that if the public saw them, they would grow to oppose them. It is very strange that, a generation later, it is an administration that supports the death penalty that is eager to live-stream them.
Hasan is paralyzed from the waist down. Otherwise, we could find a replacement for the late Richard Dawson and create a real-life The Running Man, and turn state executions into high-ratings television.