Public execution in US: Last hanging in 1936, first livestream in 2026?

Public executions in the United States ended nearly a century ago, with the last widely recognised public hanging taking place in 1936.

But in October 2026, the U.S. government announced a major break from modern practice.

Former U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on December 3, 2026, at Fort Hood.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth stated that the execution will be livestreamed to the public.

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, public executions were common community spectacles, often accompanied by sermons, large crowds, and speeches from the condemned. Parents and teachers sometimes brought children to teach them a lesson.

States steadily abandoned the practice by the mid-to-late 1930s due to growing concerns over disorder, botched hangings, and carnival-like atmospheres.

Rainey Bethea, hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky, in 1926, is widely considered to be the last official public execution in the U.S. Roscoe “Red” Jackson was hanged in Missouri in 1937, marking another final instance before states mandated private executions inside prison walls.

The closest modern parallel came in 2001, when Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was executed at a federal prison in Indiana, with victims allowed to watch via closed-circuit television. 

If Hasan’s execution proceeds as announced, it would be the first public execution in the United States in nearly 90 years.