Public executions in the US stopped nearly a century ago - why are they resuming now?

The U.S. is resuming public executions after nearly a century, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announcing that Nidal Hasan, convicted of killing 13 soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009, will be executed by firing squad via livestream in December. The last high-profile public execution occurred in 1936 when approximately 20,000 people gathered in Kentucky to witness the hanging of Rainey Bethea, a young Black man convicted of rape and murder in a spectacle that embarrassed state officials and led to public executions being outlawed. Scholars and authors who studied the 1936 execution expressed shock and horror at the decision to livestream an execution, comparing it to practices in countries like Iran and North Korea.