The Pentagon has confirmed it will livestream the firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009 — in what would be the first public broadcast of a legal execution in the United States in nearly a century.
FAKTA
- Who: Nidal Hasan, a former US Army major and psychiatrist, convicted in 2013 of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder.
- What: Execution by firing squad, to be livestreamed by the Pentagon.
- When: December 3 at 1 p.m. local time — the same hour as the 2009 shooting.
- Where: Fort Hood, Texas, the base where the massacre took place.
- Why it is unprecedented: the first US military firing-squad execution since 1945; the last legally sanctioned public execution in the US was in 1936.
Pentagon confirms the livestream
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed in an interview this week to make the execution public. Speaking aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, he said: “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.”
A Pentagon official later confirmed to Reuters that the execution “will be livestreamed,” adding that details would follow. Hegseth also confirmed the plan in a post on X.
Acting Secretary of the Army Adam Telle has set the date for December 3 at 1 p.m. local time. Hegseth said: “We’re going to do it at one o’clock, which is when he did it, and it’s going to be soldiers with rifles executing the firing squad.” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said President Donald Trump had approved the firing-squad execution at Hegseth’s recommendation.
An unprecedented decision
Hasan is set to become the first person executed by firing squad by the US military since 1945, when Eddie Slovik was put to death for desertion during World War II — and the first person executed by the military in any manner since 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was hanged.
The last legally sanctioned public execution in the United States was conducted in 1936. Media outlets have sought to televise US executions in the past but have been blocked by the courts, and no other country is known to televise or livestream a legal execution, according to Reuters.
The Trump administration recently expanded the permissible methods of federal execution to include the firing squad, electrocution and gas asphyxiation, in part because of increasing difficulties in obtaining drugs for lethal injections.
The announcement drew swift backlash from both sides of the aisle. Republican Senator Thom Tillis, who voted to confirm Hegseth, called the plan “beyond disgusting” and wrote: “Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do. It should not be happening in America.” A legal expert told the BBC the decision was “unprecedented” and on “uncertain legal terrain”. Fort Hood survivor Alonzo Lunsford said the punishment befits the crime but questioned whether the public should be able to watch it.
The 2009 Fort Hood shooting
On November 5, 2009, Hasan, then an Army major, walked into a medical facility at Fort Hood where soldiers were preparing for deployment, shouted “Allahu Akbar” and opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun. He killed 13 people — 12 active-duty soldiers and a retired serviceman — and wounded 32 others, in one of the deadliest shootings ever at a US military installation.
Hasan exchanged gunfire with police before being shot and taken into custody. At his 2013 court-martial, he admitted to the attack, saying he had targeted soldiers bound for Afghanistan.
The Pentagon says further details on the livestream will be announced in the coming weeks.
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