Plans to livestream the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan could bring the event to New Zealand screens, an expert has warned.
The Pentagon has confirmed the execution will be livestreamed, with more details to follow. Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who held the rank of major, is scheduled to be executed at Fort Hood, Texas, on December 3.
He was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in a 2009 shooting at the base.
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth told conservative outlet Real America’s Voice News the execution would be public.
"We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public."
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said US President Donald Trump had approved the execution.
Trump has previously criticised public executions in Iran, but he ordered an attack on Iran at the end of February over its ballistic missiles and the risk it could develop nuclear weapons.
University of Waikato international relations expert Al Gillespie said a live broadcast would turn the execution into an international event, forcing New Zealanders to decide whether they could watch it.
"This is the kind of thing that Mr. Trump thrives on, and the challenge, as I say, for a country like New Zealand is not that this isn't going to be an American thing, but if it's streamed live, it'll be an international thing. Then we'll have to figure out whether our own citizens can watch this act of violence by the American government against one of its own criminals."
1News has approached the New Zealand Classification Office for comment on whether a livestream of the execution would be restricted in New Zealand.
'It's entertainment – not justice'
Gillespie said the execution amounted to spectacle rather than justice.
"It's entertainment. It's not justice. It's just entertainment of a very barbaric standard, and this is going in the wrong direction if you're trying to improve society."
He noted few countries still carry out public executions, naming Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea and Saudi Arabia. He said China executes more people than any other country but does so in private.
Gillespie also warned the execution could make Hasan a figure to admire.
"You make them into martyrs, and you give them the notoriety that they want."
He said that if Trump wanted to end terror attacks, the move would do the opposite by "making this person famous and incentivising others to follow his path".
Gillespie pointed to public executions in history, which he said ended in the 19th and 20th centuries partly because crowds became desensitised and violence spread into surrounding communities.
"The live streaming of killing people is something that's more akin to terrorists, not actual states, especially those which want to put themselves forward as the foundation of civilisation."
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