Public Execution Won’t Have the Effect Trump Intends

Before the mid-19th century, executions in America were presumptively public.

Most prisoners were hanged on a gallows, following an hours-long affair that began with the condemned person’s exit from jail accompanied by ministers, the sheriff and his deputies, and sometimes a military escort.

Spectators joined the humiliating procession, gathering by the thousands to watch the noose lowered over the prisoner’s neck.

The sheriff would mount the scaffold to read aloud the death warrant, sometimes adding commentary, and at least one minister (often several) would issue sermons.

The condemned was offered the chance to give a speech, with spectators standing so close that they could ask the prisoner questions and join him in prayer, or bid him goodbye, if he was a family member or friend.

All of that seemed safely confined to a past that the Trump administration now hopes to revive.

President Trump, a consummate showman, has authorized the country’s first public execution in 90 years.

The condemned prisoner is Nidal Hasan, a military psychiatrist who murdered 13 people and injured many more during a 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, in Texas.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said that the killing, scheduled for December 3, will be conducted by the military and publicly livestreamed.

During his trial, Hasan alarmed his standby attorneys when he chose to defend himself, and mounted an argument that the lawyers considered tantamount to seeking his own death.

He could still conceivably file civilian appeals, which could delay his execution substantially.

If it goes forward, the administration surely hopes to make an example of Hasan to all who might be tempted by his worldview.

But this strategy could just as likely result in unintended consequences, and pushback by the public. [ Elizabeth Bruenig: The way of the gun ] Public executions ceased not because those who clamored to witness them found the displays uniformly outrageous, but because politicians in the 19th century associated them with proletarian barbarity.

Though these executions were theoretically meant to deter crime and exhort onlookers to practice proper Christian values, they were mostly entertainment, and did not always provoke the desired reactions.