Only 2 countries held known public executions last year. The U.S. is preparing for its first in 90 years.

When Nidal Hasan is put to death by firing squad during a public livestream, he will become the first person to be publicly executed in the United States in nearly a century.

"He's gonna get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Jack Posobiec on Real America's Voice. "We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public — because people need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things."

The list of countries that still carry out public executions, whether on video or in a public place, is very short and almost entirely countries accused of human rights violations.

"Hasan should face the death penalty, but making his execution public and streaming it? Beyond disgusting," Republican Sen. Thom Tillis wrote on X. "Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do. It should not be happening in America."

The last large-scale example of a public execution in the United States was Rainey Bethea in 1936. The crowd on hand to watch the hanging was estimated at 20,000 people, according to a local newspaper at the time.

He was never convicted of murder, only rape, which still carried the death penalty. Bethea, who was 26 years old, was hanged on Aug. 14, 1936.

A year later, Roscoe "Red" Jackson was executed in Galena, Missouri, also by hanging. He was convicted of killing a traveling salesman and stealing his car after being picked up by the victim as a hitchhiker.

The crowd for Jackson's execution was much smaller, since it was not held in the public streets of the city like Bethea's hanging.

"Executions shouldn't be public spectacle," Human Rights Watch interim U.S. Program Director Michael Bochenek told CBS News in a statement. "The death penalty is a relic of an inhumane past and should be abolished once and for all."

Iran, which the United States has accused of gross human rights violations, is one of the most prolific users of public executions in the world currently. The U.S. and Iran are also locked in a war, and President Trump has routinely cited Iran's executions of protesters as a reason the regime deserved to be deposed.

Fifty-nine people were executed this year in Iran between March 18 and Aug. 31, including dozens who took part in anti-government protests earlier this year, according to Human Rights Watch. Five of those executions have been public, the organization said.

In late February, eight days before launching strikes against Iran, Mr. Trump said he had threatened military action against Iran if they publicly executed hundreds of people.