How a botched execution and proposed livestream of a firing squad fit in to the US’ death penalty history

The failed lethal injection of convicted Tennessee murderer Christa Pike, and the proposed livestreamed execution by firing squad of US Army major Nidal Hasan, sentenced to death for 13 murders, drew the world’s attention to America’s exceptional use of the death penalty.

In Australia, Queensland’s abolition of the death penalty in 1922, made it the first jurisdiction in the British Empire to do so.

Western Australia, the final state to do away with capital punishment, abolished it in 1984.

Britain abolished the death penalty in 1965 and Canada did so in 1976.

By retaining the death penalty and inflicting capital punishment, the United States keeps company with countries such as Iran, North Korea and Somalia .

If the military carries out Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to livestream Hasan’s execution, American-style justice will resemble Afghanistan’s , not the majority of the world’s democracies.

A state matter Most executions in the US are conducted under state authority in the 27 (out of 50) states that currently retain the death penalty.

For capital crimes deemed federal offences, including ones prosecuted by courts martial, presidential approval is required for executions to be carried out.

One of President Donald Trump’s first executive orders in his second term reversed President Joe Biden’s moratorium on federal executions.

Since the mid-19th century, US politicians, judges, and religious and secular lobbyists have opposed the death penalty.

The abolition movement peaked in the 1960s, when approval of capital punishment dipped to 42%.

Today, that rate sits at 52% .

Yet, just 23 states have abolished the death penalty.

The death penalty and American exceptionalism Historically, the concept of American exceptionalism has referred to the republic’s founding in democracy , liberty and rights.