Let’s not make executions public

We must say, we applaud President Donald Trump’s recent decision to put the kibosh on defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s planned livestream of the execution of former Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who in 2009 killed 13 people during a shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas. In a Truth Social post, the president said the public execution could serve as a deterrent but didn’t want to subject “good and well-meaning” people to the sight.
Let’s get this out of the way immediately. That does not mean we aren’t in favor of Hasan being executed, or that we sympathize with him in any way. He is a coward and a scumbag who killed 13 innocent people, and we won’t shed a single tear when he is put to death. But this is not the kind of thing that should be livestreamed for the world to see. That, in our opinion, is something we as a civilized society have moved past, and would be nothing short of barbaric.
Think about the groups who broadcast executions. Groups like the Taliban and ISIS have in the past recorded and broadcast gruesome videos of beheadings and other executions. Is that the kind of company we want the United States to keep? We certainly don’t think so. We aren’t naive enough to think there aren’t people who wouldn’t have tuned into the execution. It probably would have been watched by a lot of people. That doesn’t mean it is right. Others around the White House, including vice president J.D. Vance and House speaker Mike Johnson said they wouldn’t watch.
Hasan will be put to death Dec. 3 for his murders. In addition to the 13 people he killed, he injured another 32, and has expressed zero remorse for what he did. He said he had “switched sides” in the U.S.-Afghanistan war and set out on the rampage right before he was supposed to be deployed.
No legal execution has ever been broadcast in the U.S., and the last public execution in the United Stated States took place more than 60 years ago. Polls showed Americans were overwhelmingly against the idea. Many, including those in Washington, D.C., said the video would become nothing more than propaganda and a recruiting tool for future terrorists. Condemnation was even a bipartisan issue in Washington.
Yes, the United States still conducts executions, but they are not made public, with only officials, clergy, family and victims’ family watching. And for most of those people, it’s only if they want to watch. It isn’t made into a spectacle. It’s a solemn occasion. If you want to privately celebrate, have at it. But in an era and a country where we are becoming more and more desensitized to violence, we feel the right decision was made to stop this.
In the end, when Hasan is put to death by a firing squad, he will be getting what he deserves, but he will not be made a martyr. He will go out quietly, with a whimper, like he deserves. We are better than those entities that like to make a spectacle of their executions. That’s why deciding against a public execution is the best thing President  Trump could have decided to do.