WASHINGTON — Sen. John Curtis did not mince words when sharing his thoughts on the proposed public execution of an Army officer convicted of a 2009 mass shooting.
In a social media post Friday, the U.S. Senator from Utah compared the idea of livestreaming the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan to ones that led to the downfall of the ancient Roman Empire.
"Seneca warned that Rome’s bloody spectacles corrupted the people who watched them," Curtis wrote on social media. "A civilization erodes when it cultivates an appetite for executions as a form of entertainment."
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The Pentagon announced Thursday that Hasan's execution, scheduled for Dec. 3, would be broadcast live, bringing a split reaction from the public, with many siding with Curtis. In his note, Curtis said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's decision to allow the public execution "risks feeding" the appetite for it to be televised as entertainment.
"The victims deserve justice administered with solemnity. Broadcasting a death diminishes us and is not an effective deterrent. I urge him to reconsider," Curtis said.
Hasan was a major in the U.S. Army and served as a psychiatrist when he killed 13 people and wounded 32 others after opening fire inside a medical building at Fort Hood, Texas.
The last man executed in the military system was Pvt. John Bennett, hanged in 1961 for raping an 11-year-old girl.