Stop the Public Broadcasting of Nidal Hasan’s Execution

I am your constituent. I am begging you to please halt this public execution. This is a line we must not cross. Justice must never become a public spectacle, and the execution of a convicted mass murderer must never become a national broadcast entertainment show. Nidal Hasan committed horrific acts that devastated innocent people and their families. I do not condone his actions in any way. He must be punished to the fullest extent of the law. But accountability and public humiliation are not the same thing, and justice does not require turning a human execution into a national viewing event. I am begging you to stop this. Use your position to speak out against this atrocity. Think about the children. In a world where violent content spreads across television, phones, and social media within seconds, how will you prevent children from seeing images of a real person being executed by the government? A warning label will not be enough. A broadcast can be recorded, clipped, reposted, and pushed into children’s feeds long after the original event. We cannot pretend that every child will be protected by parental controls or that every family will have the opportunity to intervene. Exposure to graphic violence can cause serious psychological distress, including anxiety, nightmares, intrusive thoughts, and trauma. Children are particularly vulnerable. Even adults can experience lasting distress from witnessing real-life death. Why would our government deliberately create another source of potentially traumatic material when it has a responsibility to protect the public? What message does a public execution broadcast send about our nation? That death is a spectacle? That violence becomes acceptable when the government sanctions it? We should be demonstrating the difference between a civilized justice system and the cruelty we condemn—not inviting millions of people, including children, to watch a human being die. History offers ample reason to question public executions as deterrence or justice. Our nation should not move backward by making state-sanctioned death a broadcast event. I demand that Congress take immediate action to prevent any public broadcast or distribution of execution footage intended for mass viewing. Hold urgent hearings, investigate the legal authority for this proposal, and use every appropriate legislative and oversight tool to stop it. Punish the crime. Uphold the law. Protect our children. Protect our nation’s mental health and our collective humanity. I am not asking you to excuse Nidal Hasan. I am asking you to ensure that our pursuit of justice does not inflict needless harm on an entire generation of Americans. Do not let this execution become entertainment. Act now, before the damage is done. Please.