Responding to the announcement that the Trump administration has set the first military execution since 1961, and that the execution will be carried out by firing squad and livestreamed to the public, Justin Mazzola, Deputy Director of Research at Amnesty International USA, said:
“The announcement by the Trump administration that it has set the first military execution in more than six decades is reprehensible and showcases the inherent arbitrariness of the death penalty and the authorities’ utter disregard for the right to life.
“The death penalty is a violation of human rights, no matter what. International human rights bodies have long found public executions as incompatible with the prohibition on cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The claim that the death penalty serves as a greater deterrent is simply unfounded: there is no evidence that it has a unique deterrent effect. The death penalty does not make us safer.
“Livestreaming the taking of a life by firing squad would only compound the cruelty of the death penalty and perpetuate the cycle of violence that the authorities purportedly seek to end.
“This announcement adds to the display of cruelty that we have just witnessed in the senseless pursuit of the execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee. The US death penalty is irredeemably broken. It is high time that the US authorities, at all levels, use their power to show human rights leadership and end this ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment once and for all.”
Background
The US federal administration has announced that it intends to carry out on 3 December the execution of a man convicted of the murder of 13 people in a mass shooting on the Fort Hood military base, Texas, in 2009. On 8 October, US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, stated that the execution will be publicly livestreamed.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception regardless of the nature or circumstances of the crime; guilt, innocence or other characteristics of the individual; or the method used by the state to carry out the execution. The organization campaigns for total abolition of the death penalty.
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