The Capital Punishment Show: The Troubling Trajectory of Trump’s America
Donald Trump’s wish to live broadcast the execution of a death row inmate marks a troubling new development in the United States. When a democracy turns death into a spectacle, it is barbarism that wins ground.
There is something appalling about this news. Donald Trump has given the green light to livestream the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, the shooter responsible for killing 13 people on a military base in Texas in 2009. Will it be shown on TV? On the internet? Nothing has been confirmed yet. But the thought alone sends shivers down one’s spine.
The U.N. was quick to denounce the decision: "livestreaming a planned execution by firing squad in the United States would amount to a public execution and breach the absolute prohibition on torture," the organization warned.
Nidal Hasan is "going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be, and we'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public," the Pentagon chief stated. It would mark the first execution by the American military since 1961.
News as appalling as the news it replaces: the failed execution of Christa Pike, who was sentenced to death in Tennessee and survived two lethal injections. Torture, you said?
Inhumane and Disgraceful
Little by little, what was once considered the world’s greatest democracy appears to be toppling into savagery. Whatever one’s views, the death penalty remains the cruelest punishment that can be inflicted on a human being. It is an inhumane and disgraceful punishment for a nation like the United States, which rests on the values of freedom, justice and democracy. But this cruelty is now made all the more cruel by another kind of barbarism: the desire to turn the execution of a man into a public spectacle.
Would this not, then, be a symptom of an America that, under the battering of Donald Trump, drifts further and further away from the values it claims to protect?
According to Amnesty International, since Trump’s return to power, the United States has climbed its way back up to being among the countries with the highest execution rates in the world — one of the top five! On the day of his inauguration, Jan. 20, 2025, Donald Trump signed an executive order officially titled "Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety." It encourages the Justice Department to seek the death penalty more often and urges states to carry out more executions, the human rights organization notes. The organization also highlights 2025 as a record year with 47 people executed in the United States.
But amid all this, the most worrying part is the desire to turn death into a spectacle, to offer the public an inmate's execution on television as though it were a basketball game or the latest Spielberg movie. Should we get the popcorn ready? A democracy worthy of its name is also judged by the way it treats its worst criminals. Turning their executions into a spectacle is toppling the entire country into savagery.
There is something appalling about this news. Donald Trump has given the green light to livestream the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, the shooter responsible for killing 13 people on a military base in Texas in 2009. Will it be shown on TV? On the internet? Nothing has been confirmed yet. But the thought alone sends shivers down one’s spine.
The U.N. was quick to denounce the decision: "livestreaming a planned execution by firing squad in the United States would amount to a public execution and breach the absolute prohibition on torture," the organization warned.
Nidal Hasan is "going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be, and we'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public," the Pentagon chief stated. It would mark the first execution by the American military since 1961.
News as appalling as the news it replaces: the failed execution of Christa Pike, who was sentenced to death in Tennessee and survived two lethal injections. Torture, you said?
Inhumane and Disgraceful
Little by little, what was once considered the world’s greatest democracy appears to be toppling into savagery. Whatever one’s views, the death penalty remains the cruelest punishment that can be inflicted on a human being. It is an inhumane and disgraceful punishment for a nation like the United States, which rests on the values of freedom, justice and democracy. But this cruelty is now made all the more cruel by another kind of barbarism: the desire to turn the execution of a man into a public spectacle.
Would this not, then, be a symptom of an America that, under the battering of Donald Trump, drifts further and further away from the values it claims to protect?
According to Amnesty International, since Trump’s return to power, the United States has climbed its way back up to being among the countries with the highest execution rates in the world — one of the top five! On the day of his inauguration, Jan. 20, 2025, Donald Trump signed an executive order officially titled "Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety." It encourages the Justice Department to seek the death penalty more often and urges states to carry out more executions, the human rights organization notes. The organization also highlights 2025 as a record year with 47 people executed in the United States.
But amid all this, the most worrying part is the desire to turn death into a spectacle, to offer the public an inmate's execution on television as though it were a basketball game or the latest Spielberg movie. Should we get the popcorn ready? A democracy worthy of its name is also judged by the way it treats its worst criminals. Turning their executions into a spectacle is toppling the entire country into savagery.
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