The Pentagon announced plans to livestream the firing squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood military base in Texas on November 5, 2009. The execution is scheduled for December 3 at 1 p.m. local time at Fort Hood, the same location where Hasan carried out the shooting.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the plan in an interview with Real America's Voice, saying the execution would be public so people could witness it. "He's gonna get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be," Hegseth 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." President Donald Trump approved the use of a firing squad for Hasan's execution following Hegseth's recommendation, and Trump said Friday that Hasan "deserves" execution because he "killed a lot, a lot of people" and is "a maniac."
Hasan will become the first person executed by firing squad by the U.S. military since 1945, shortly after the end of World War II. The execution will also mark the first military execution in the United States in more than 65 years, with the last occurring in 1961. In 2013, a military tribunal convicted Hasan and sentenced him to death for the November 2009 shooting, in which he killed 12 soldiers and one civilian employee, and wounded 32 others.
The announcement has drawn significant opposition from lawmakers across both parties and raised questions about the legality and ethics of public executions in the United States. Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican, said Hasan should be executed but that streaming it would be "beyond disgusting," noting that "public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do." Representative Austin Scott, also a Republican, said "livestreaming executions is what jihadists do. America is better than that."
Democratic lawmakers also criticized the plan. Representative Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, called it "disturbing and makes a mockery of our legal system." Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Hasan should "face justice" but expressed concerns about the broadcast approach.
Vice President JD Vance cast doubt on whether the livestream would actually occur, telling reporters Friday, "I don't know that that's actually going to happen." He added that if it does proceed, "I'm not going to be watching it."
Legal experts have noted that the decision operates on uncertain legal terrain. The UN human rights office told AFP that livestreaming the execution would be "tantamount to a public execution" and would breach international prohibitions on torture. Media outlets have previously sought to televise U.S. executions but were blocked by courts. No execution has been publicly broadcast in the United States in nearly a century.
Pentagon officials said more details about the livestream, including the platform that will be used, would be announced at a later date.