A Pentagon official told Reuters the Army will livestream the 3 December firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan at Fort Hood, the first US military firing-squad execution since 1945.
The Pentagon said on Thursday that the Army will livestream the firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009. A Pentagon official told Reuters, on condition of anonymity, that the execution will be livestreamed and that details will follow. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the plan in a post on X, Reuters reported.
Hasan is scheduled to be executed on 3 December at Fort Hood, the Texas base where the shooting happened. Reuters said he would be the first person executed by a US military firing squad since 1945. The Associated Press reported that the Army set the date this week and that Hegseth had said on Wednesday that people would be able to watch.
A military jury sentenced Hasan to death in August 2013 on 45 counts of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder, Reuters reported. President Donald Trump approved a firing-squad execution on Hegseth's recommendation, the Pentagon said on Monday. The White House declined to say whether Trump supported livestreaming and referred questions to the Pentagon.
Media requests to televise US executions have been blocked by courts in the past, Reuters noted. Death Penalty Action said Hasan's execution would be the first military execution since 1961, which the Death Penalty Information Center said was by hanging. Military-law expert Eugene Fidell told Reuters a livestream would be extremely strange and that Hasan would need to sue in federal court to block a public display.
The livestream format has not been published. The confirmed facts are the date, the place, the method already approved, and the Pentagon statement that the execution will be streamed.
People Sentiments Negative
- Hegseth said people need to understand there are serious consequences and that the public should be able to watch.
- Eugene Fidell told Reuters it would be extremely strange to livestream an execution.
- Jonathan Lurie, a historian of military justice, asked what the point of making the execution public would be.