Who is the man being executed by firing squad on livestream in first public execution for 90 years
In a disturbingly dystopian update, the US government have confirmed that an execution at the Pentagon will be live streamed on the internet.
Following the botched execution of Christa Pike, which has dominated news across the world in recent weeks, the US clearly want to send a different message when it comes to Nidal Malik Hasan, who is scheduled to die in December.
Despite Pike's execution going horribly wrong, with the 50-year-old now conscious and talking in hospital, Jamaal Howard was also put to death by lethal injection earlier this week using the same controversial drug, and he wouldn't survive it.
The death penalty is already a hugely debated topic and isn't something we've seen in the UK since 1964, but in the US they happen on a fairly regular basis, albeit behind closed doors with only family of the convict and any of their victims permitted to attend.
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A public execution feels medieval but now the planned firing squad execution of Hasan later this year at the Pentagon will be plastered on the internet for all to see after US defence secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that it would be 'public', which will be the first since Rainey Bethea was killed in Kentucky 90 years ago.
"We'll make sure that people are able to watch it," Mr Hegseth told conservative TV outlet Real America's Voice News.
But who is Hasan? And what did he do to warrant such a violent method of death that the US government felt needed to be live-streamed online?
The 56-year-old worked in the US Army as a major and a physician, but in 2009 his intentions as an Islamic terrorist became clear, as he infiltrated Fort Hood and shot 13 unarmed soldiers dead, injuring 33 others.
"People need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things," said Hegseth.
Hasan represented himself in a 2013 trial and admitted responsibility for the killings, later claiming that he had 'switched sides' in a 'war against Islam' that he believed had been wagered by the US.
Despite problems that plagued Hasan's service in the army, which included him making 'outlandish' statements about the US military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, Hasan continued to progress upwards through the army.
He even reportedly said that 'the Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor', when referring to American soldiers as the aggressors.
On November 5 2009, he committed the worst shooting against armed forces on an American military base, and he has remained incarcerated at US army barracks ever since.
While Hesgeth and Donald Trump, who has approved the Defence Secretary's recommendation, feel that Hasan should be publicly executed, thankfully there would be significant legal obstacles for this to overcome.
John Mills, a lawyer who works with inmates sentenced to death, called the decision to livestream it 'unprecedented in the modern era'.
He told the BBC: "Seeking to make it livestreamed, a firing squad execution, is little more than attention-seeking by the Trump administration and is unlikely to occur, much less deliver any semblance of justice."
LADbible has contacted the White House for comment.
James Moorhouse