Justice should not become a spectacle.

The planned public execution of Nidal Hasan, convicted of murdering 13 people at Fort Hood, raises a serious question: what purpose does broadcasting his death serve?

The victims and their families deserve justice, remembrance and dignity. They should never be overshadowed by a spectacle centred on the man who took their lives.

There is also a wider danger. Extremists can turn punishment into propaganda, presenting an execution as martyrdom and using the images to glorify the very individual the state intends to condemn.

A public execution risks giving him one final platform — not to defend his crimes, but to have his death appropriated by those who share his ideology.

Justice must be about accountability, not revenge; the rule of law, not public spectacle. A state should be confident enough in its justice system not to need an audience for an execution.

The question is not whether his crimes deserve condemnation. They do. It is whether broadcasting his death serves justice — or risks serving the very extremism it seeks to defeat.