According to AFP, U.S. House Speaker and Republican Mike Johnson said in an interview with American media on October 12 that he is cautious about the plan to live-stream the execution of Nidal Hassan, a military psychiatrist, fearing that such videos could become tools for recruiting terrorists in the future.
Johnson said, “It is concerning that this could create a video that could be used by future terrorists to recruit people. We must carefully consider the policy implications behind all of this.”
He also stated that even if he live-streamed, he wouldn't watch it himself and claimed "Some colleagues have concerns".
The 56-year-old Hassan was convicted by a military jury in 2009 for shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, resulting in the death of 13 people. His sentence was to be executed by a firing squad on December 3rd at Fort Hood.
If it proceeds as planned, this will be the first time in over 1945 that the U.S. military has carried out executions using a firing squad. Experts on capital punishment say this will also be the first known case of a legal execution being broadcast live.
United States Secretary of Defense Pete Buttigieg defended the live stream plan, saying “We will ensure people are able to watch and make it public.”
U.S. President Trump previously said that Hassan should be executed by shooting, calling him a "madman". However, he stated that the final decision on whether to broadcast the execution live has not been made.
American Vice President Williams said on October 9 local time that he had no idea whether a live broadcast would actually take place. If it did, he wouldn’t watch it.
