Oct 9, 2026 · 8:29
Executions Explained: From Public Squares to Livestreams
The Pentagon has announced plans to livestream a U.S. military execution. But public executions are not new. This explainer separates three questions that often get mixed up: whether the death penalty exists, how executions are carried out, and who gets to watch. From Hammurabi's laws and London's public executions to two different paths of reform, the world map of abolition, the 2025 execution figures and what they leave out, the arguments on both sides, what deterrence research can and cannot show, and what a broadcast would – and would not – change.
This video does not show any execution and does not link to any broadcast.
0:59In under a minute
The U.S. Plans to Livestream an Execution. What's Changed?
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Sources & further reading (16)
- AP via PBS NewsHour – Pentagon says Fort Hood shooter's execution will be livestreamed
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/pentagon-says-firing-squad-execution-of-fort-hood-shooter-will-be-livestreamed - Axios – Hegseth: Public can watch Nidal Hasan's execution
https://www.axios.com/2026/10/08/hegseth-nidal-hasan-firing-squad-public-tv - Military Times – Army sets date, location for execution of Nidal Malik Hasan
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2026/10/07/army-sets-date-location-for-execution-of-nidal-malik-hasan/ - Louvre – Code of Hammurabi
https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010174436 - London Museum – London's public executions
https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/londons-public-executions/ - Beccaria – On Crimes and Punishments (1764), ch. 28
https://www.laits.utexas.edu/poltheory/beccaria/delitti/delitti.c28.html - Museo Galileo – Tuscany's 1786 abolition
https://www.museogalileo.it/en/events-and-news/2032-festa-della-toscana-2020-eng.html - Guinness World Records – Venezuela, 1863
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/first-abolition-of-death-penalty - French Ministry of Justice – 40 years of abolition
https://www.justice.gouv.fr/actualites/espace-presse/40e-anniversaire-labolition-peine-mort-france - Constitutional Court of South Africa – S v Makwanyane (1995)
https://www.concourt.org.za/index.php/20-history-of-the-court/the-first-hearing - Texas Department of Criminal Justice – Death Row Facts
https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/death_row/facts.html - Amnesty International – Death Sentences and Executions 2025
https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/act50/0778/2026/en/ - Death Penalty Information Center – The death penalty in the U.S. military
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/the-death-penalty-in-the-u-s-military - Singapore Ministry of Home Affairs – Studies on the death penalty
https://www.mha.gov.sg/media-room/newsroom/findings-from-recent-studies-on-the-death-penalty-in-singapore/ - National Research Council – Deterrence and the Death Penalty (2012)
https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/13363/deterrence-and-the-death-penalty - UN Human Rights Committee – General comment No. 36, para. 40
https://docs.un.org/en/CCPR/C/GC/36